Chairman of Cyryx College and a close friend of former President Dr. Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik, Ahmed Shareef says former Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai had requested the ex-President to resign from his post.
This comes after the former President said last night that a minister-level official from the Indian government had asked Dr. Waheed to step aside from his position. He made these comments while speaking at the gathering held by the opposition to commemorate national day yesterday.
Following the ex-President’s comments, his close acquaintance Shareef tweeted saying that the high-level official was former Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai and that the ex-President had confided in him the details of the Indian request.
Shareef clarified that Dr. Waheed had a meeting with Foreign Secretary Mathai and that Mathai had asked the then President to go on TV and resign from his post in front of the whole nation.
Shareef said once the ex-President refused to comply with the request, the Indian side had started pressuring his government by insisting that the Maldivian side repay the USD 100 million loan taken from the State of Bank of India (SBI) effective immediately.
He said that the Maldivian government opted to pay back the loan and had taken the money from MMA reserve having found it difficult to pay back such a huge amount in USD.
He added that former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb and former Defense Minister Colonel Retired Mohamed Nazim had been in charge of the repayment process.
‘The Press’ was unable to contact both Adeeb and Nazim to corroborate the comments made by Shareef.
