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Putting at rest avoidable speculation about the Opposition being behind Monday's blast on the presidential speedboat, the Maldivian Government has ruled out the possibility of an assassination attempt, saying a mechanical issue was the probable cause.

For a nation celebrating the golden jubilee of the country's Independence, Maldives has been at sixes and sevens through the previous year. And for a people who have taken politics and democracy with all its dynamism and vibrancy,

The Maldivian authorities can now breathe easy. Now that the Cricket World Cup, played in venues across Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, is completed without any security problems, the reported Interpol alert against Maldives-based religious terrorists targeting the match venues have receded for good.

Former President Mohammed Nasheed was on a six-day-long visit to India, pressing his case for early elections and reiterating his position on the need for reforming the nation's 'independent institutions'.

In Maldives, if the mainline polity has failed in fighting a process now being projected as contributing to religious extremism, militancy or terrorism, the global community too has failed to distinguish between a return of Islamic traditions and the advent of Islamic extremism, and act accordingly.

In Maldives, legal and judicial process may be in for another season of controversies, ahead of the presidential polls in September. It is also in transition, from a not-so-democratic past to a democratised future. It is too early to say which way it would go.

After the cancellation or non-conduct of the court-ordered first-round re-poll on 19 October in Maldives, outgoing President Mohammed Waheed Hassan Manik and the Supreme Court seem to have expanded the scope and meaning of 'inclusive poll' in the even more contemporary context.

If one thing is becoming increasingly clear in 'democratised' Maldives, it is that street-protests can change Governments and constitutions, policies and national priorities. It is thus that the nation found street-protests heralding 'multi-party' democracy,

That the Maldivian Government of President Mohammed 'Anni' Nasheed has taken the economic reforms process seriously, risking its electoral future, has been known for some time now.

Maldives parliament vote barring registration of political parties with less than 10,000 verifiable members may have set the cat among the pigeons in the Maldivian polity. For, included in the list could be the Quamee Iththihad Party of none other than President Mohammed.

After a week of relative lull on the political front, Maldivian politics revved up on March 5, after the police detained former President Mohammed Nasheed, for production before the Hulhumale' court.

In Maldives, 'bogus voters' and 'fraudulent votes' were among the major issues on which the Supreme Court had adjudicated. However, the prescribed cure has proved to be as problematic as the perceived ailment.

In Maldives, successive elections have shown that the MDP is still not in 'absolute majority' in electoral terms. The DRP cross-over in Parliament after the annulled polls, which alone gave the MDP combine a working majority in the House, may not tell the whole story.

It is anybody's guess why Maldives' Election Commission did not choose to move the Supreme Court, particularly when legal cases of the current nature has the potential to reset the poll-clock, for which there is no provision in the Constitution.

Without most people noticing it and anyone acknowledging it, either inside the country or outside, Maldives' new President Abdulla Yameen launched the nation's new 'foreign policy' at a quiet ceremony in capital Male on January 20, 2014.

The unresolved India-China border dispute brings China closer to the Indian Ocean in every political and geo-strategic calculation of nations like Maldives and Sri Lanka, even though they are not as close to both the 'Asian giants' as the rest of India's South Asian neighbours.

In Maldives, despite a last-minute 'cancellation' of the third round of talks between the Government and the MDP leader of the combined Opposition, there is nothing to suggest that the current reconciliation process has derailed, irrecoverably.

In Maldives, with the People's Majlis, or Parliament, commencing its delayed inaugural session for the current year with the customary address by President Mohammed Wahid Hassan, even if in the midst of disturbances caused by Maldivian Democratic Party.

In a not-so-unexpected development, the Maldivian Supreme Court stripped Elections Commission President Fuwad Thowfeek and Vice-President Ahmed Fayaz Hassan of their membership, for the contempt of the court.

On specifics they may differ, but a common view seems to be slowly emerging on the imminent need for effecting reforms to the nation's judiciary among the divided polity in Maldives.

In an ambitious legislative move aimed at attracting big-time investments spread across the archipelago, the Maldivian Government of President Abdulla Yameen has got the Parliament to pass a new law for setting up Special Economic Zones (SEZs).

For a democratic polity that is still in its infancy, Maldives has faced splits in major parties barring the ruling MDP and splintering alliances, whose aggregate result is to strengthen the hands of President Mohammed Nasheed.

After seemingly winning the earlier rounds in the ongoing political tug-of-war since the New Year commenced, Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen seems to have got his political detractors on the wrong foot again,

Maldives President Mohammed Waheed Hassan Manik had indicated in a national address last week that he would transfer power on 11 November. Yet, the Supreme Court's observation may have thrown up an eminently avoidable possibility.

It did not receive as much media attention as the one by predecessor Mohammed Nasheed a fortnight earlier in the host nation. Yet when President Mohammed Waheed Hassan Manik came calling at New Delhi he did make his points, loud and clear at corridors and quarters that mattered.

For a second occasion in almost as many weeks, former Maldives President Mohammed Nasheed hinted at a change of the country's leadership. Such reports will sound credible only if the MDP is able to muster two-thirds majority in Parliament.

The recent three-presidential-candidate-meeting and their meaningful proposal to complete the poll process in time has brought back political pragmatism back to the nation's centre-table, where electoral expediency and excesses alone seemed to rule for an interim.

The recent presidential polls show the continuing stranglehold of 'coalition politics' in the contemporary Maldivian context. It became visible when Nasheed defeated incumbent Maumoon Abdul Gayoom in the second round of the 2008 polls, after securing only 25 percent vote-share in the first round.

There is a need for all-party coordination committees at the island and atoll-levels, besides at the highest level, to ensure a smooth presidential polls on September 7. There is also a greater need for coordination between the police and the EC officials at all levels.

In Maldives, a ruling coalition member's decision to move an amendment to the 2008 Constitution, to fix an upper age-limit of 65 years for contesting presidential election, has landed President Abdulla Yameen in an unnecessary controversy.

In Maldives, the use of religion for political purposes should not be confused with a return or advent of 'fundamentalist Islam' or whatever.

In Maldives, the development following former President Nasheed seeking refuge in Indian Embassy after an arrest warrant from a local court has raised a number of issues -- legal, political and diplomatic. Presidential polls are due in the country in September this year.

In Maldives, the three-party ruling coalition, led by President Abdulla Yameen's Progressive Party of Maldives, has split on the very first day of the very first session of the People's Parliament, elected only in March.

Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj undertook a two-day weekend visit to Maldives, setting the stage for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to follow suit, but possibly based on the quick-changing domestic developments in the Indian Ocean archipelago.

The question of the emergency-declaration by Maldives President Abdulla Yameen being a political ploy for the President if only to effect an across-the-board purge, needs even more convincing arguments than what former President Nasheed's MDP has now put forth.

Now that the nation has regained some semblance of order and some of its lost direction, it is time that the divided polity in Maldives sat down and discussed pending issues for a political solution aimed at breaking what is increasingly becoming a passive deadlock.

As was only to be expected, the WikiLeaks whistle-blower's accounts of US diplomatic exchanges within has something to say of little Maldives too, and it has also the potential to embarrass, if not harass, the incumbent Government of President Mohammed Nasheed.

With Maldives' Election Commission setting in motion the process for holding the first round of Supreme Court-ordered re-poll for the nation's presidency, political parties and voters alike are gearing up for a repeat performance of sorts, twice in as many months.

Though there is a feeling of political stability now with the Government of President Mohammed Waheed Hassan Manik in Maldives, it has also flagged news issues that could challenge the internals of the uneasy coalition that he has been heading.

Gayoom's decision means more things than one in contemporary Maldivian politics. His reference to his party having other worthy candidates for the presidency could imply that Gayoom may not back the candidacy of President Mohammed Waheed Hassan Manik.

In the Maldives presidential polls run-off on September 28, an additional percentage point or two could make the difference to the results in a way. A deduction in that figure could make any second-round prediction even more complex and complicated.

While it may be inconceivable in the Third World democratic context that the Bill that restricts political rights of Nasheed was moved and passed without the President's consent, Yameen has now returned the Bill to Parliament.

On April 6, the Tuaregs rebelled against the Mali state, captured large areas in the northern region (Kidal, Gao and Timbuktu) and declared autonomy by forming a new "Azawad" state.

Boosting further the relations between India and Bangladesh, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee recently undertook a three-day visit to Dhaka. The successful visit is expected to create a positive ground for Prime Minister Modi's visit likely later in the year.

Tensions in Asia are rising over unresolved territorial disputes and sovereignty issues. In contrast to the immediate post-Cold War period, recent tensions are characterised by the evident proclivity of some, if not all, parties towards the threat or use of limited force.

Former Prime Minister Vajpayee¿s government may not have left India shining, but to its credit, it notched up several major achievements on the national security font. Foremost among these was declaring India a nuclear weapons state, a move that unquestionably enhanced India¿s quest for strategic autonomy.

15 years ago the cabinet had drawn up a 30-year submarine modernisation plan to have 24 submarines by 2030. Half-way through this period, we now have more than half of the 14 submarines which have completed three-fourths of their operational lives. What is more, the Navy is increasingly deployed on coast guard anti-terror duties and not for its primary role.