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NEW DELHI: Having rushed to welcome the new president of Maldives Dr Waheed, India is working hard behind the scenes to ensure a peaceful transition, and has asked the new regime to ensure safety of ex-president Mohamed Nasheed, after an arrest warrant was put out for him on Thursday evening. 

Even as the violence on the streets of Male and Addu escalated, national security adviser Shivshankar Menon held a spate of meetings here on Thursday to see how India can ensure several things. First, impress upon the new government that former president Nasheed should not be targeted, harmed or imprisoned; second, that the transition to the new regime be as peaceful as possible; that the new government should ensure continuity rather than sweeping changes and lastly that the new government should honour all its agreements. 

India is also preparing for a worse-case scenario of increased instability in the tropical island nation - one warship and two naval patrol vessels are on standby, though they haven’t yet been diverted to the Maldives. A couple of patrol vessels which are in the area for anti-piracy missions have been put on alert and if things worsen substantially there over the next few days, India would be ready to evacuate foreigners from there. Maldives is one of the top vacation spots for well-heeled tourists from all over the world. 

However, India is prepared to let the situation play itself out in the Maldives for the time being at least. Sources said, optimistically, that there were enough internal mechanisms within the Maldivian system to resolve the present crisis. But this belief, which led the Indian government to initially accept the changed situation in Maldives with alacrity, is no longer founded in reality. India was actively involved in the changeover, and the orderly transition of power - for the second time in its history - was seen as a positive sign. But democracy in the Maldives is in its infancy still, and the fear is that it may not be able to withstand the strain of the current events. 

New Delhi is uncomfortable with some of the new appointments by Waheed - his new home minister is Mohamed Jameel Ahmed of minority opposition Dhivehi Quamee Party. Jameel famously published a controversial pamphlet accusing Nasheed of working with "Jews and Christians" and against Islamic ideals. Many other appointments seem to be throwbacks to the Gayoom era - even Gayoom’s spokesperson is apparently acting for Waheed. India has cautioned Waheed against such largescale changes. 

Having facilitated the changeover from Nasheed with some degree of smoothness after the first round of surprise, India was unprepared for the violence that broke out in the Maldives since Wednesday and drastically altered the ground realities. After Nasheed told journalists that he had been forced out at gunpoint by forces apparently willing to shoot him dead, and his family fled to Sri Lanka, the situation got distinctly ugly. India’s unease has only grown since. 

For starters, there is no clarity yet on what was the exact nature of the changeover. Waheed, who met journalists on Thursday, denied any coup. "Do I look like someone who’d bring about a coup d’etat?" he asked. But Nasheed said he feared for his life. "They beat me up very badly... they also tried to drag me...after I came out there was a crowd," said the ex-president. 

The fears here are that the new system, which hasn’t even seen two election cycles, could be overturned either with former president Gayoom trying to make a comeback with the help of the armed forces, or whether the army itself gets a taste of ruling the country. It is also unclear how much popular support Waheed himself enjoys as he tries to stitch a coalition together to hold until elections in 2013. What is clear is that Nasheed continues to have a large number of both supporters and detractors. His supporters reportedly set on fire several police stations which is certain to invite law enforcement actions against Nasheed. Several of his MPs have been detained and suffered police action. Justice Abdulla Mohamed, whose detention had sparked off the crisis, on Thursday put out arrest warrants for Nasheed and his defence minister. 

Nasheed has appealed for international help to restore democracy in his country. While India has a large diplomatic presence in the country, reports on Thursday said the US and UN officials were flying into Male. The British envoy from Sri Lanka too has flown in to assess the situation.