New Delhi: Even as ambassadors went for meetings at each other’s foreign ministries, India and Maldives on Monday (January 8) attempted to bring down the temperature on the social media controversy over derogatory remarks made by Maldivian government officials.

As Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu landed in China for his first trip, his ambassador to New Delhi Ibrahim Shaheeb went to the Indian foreign ministry to talk about the fallout of the derogatory posts by Maldivian government officials towards the Indian prime minister.

A couple of hours later, Indian high commissioner to Malé, Munu Mahawar, went to the Maldivian foreign ministry for what was described as a “pre-arranged” meeting.

The third day of the controversy saw the Indian government stepping in with TV cameras stationed at South Block and running videos of the the Maldivian ambassador arriving at the Indian foreign ministry for what some media reports described as a “summoning”.

However, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) did not issue any readout to term it as such.

Over an hour later, the Maldivian media aired clips of the Indian envoy getting down from his official car and going into the Maldivian foreign ministry.

Although media reports claimed that Mahawar was “summoned”, the Indian high commission quickly clarified through a post on X (formerly Twitter) that it was, in fact, a "pre-arranged meeting”.

This was a sign that there was an understanding to not take any steps at the governmental level that could further enflame tensions on the current controversy.

The social media controversy escalated to a diplomatic crisis after members of the Maldivian government and ruling party MPs made derogatory remarks on Saturday (January 6) following Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Lakshadweep islands.

With Indian film stars and celebrities jumping onto the bandwagon to promote Lakshadweep and claiming that it was a better destination than the Maldives, the controversy on social media continued to ferment on Sunday.

The Maldivian government issued a statement through its foreign ministry on Sunday afternoon that such remarks on social media platforms were personal and not the official view.

Its statement did not attribute the remarks to Maldivian government officials, but it underlined that the government will “not hesitate to take action against those who make such derogatory remarks”.

A couple of hours later, the Maldivian president’s office told reporters through text messages that three deputy ministers in the youth ministry had been “suspended” for making those derogatory remarks towards the Indian leader.

However, the president’s office did not issue any public readout about the suspension.

Indian official sources had told reporters that the Indian high commission in the Maldives had strongly taken up the matter of the X posts with the Maldivian foreign ministry.

On Sunday night, Muizzu left for his five-day long visit to China, which was a strong signal about his sympathies towards Beijing.

He arrived on Monday and began his state visit with a trip to the Xiamen Free Trade Zone in China’s Fujian province.

Meanwhile in the subcontinent, the controversy showed no sign of abatement on social media, with X posts from Indian influencers and celebrities continuing to call for a boycott of the Maldives.

An Indian travel portal also said that it was suspending all future bookings for the Maldives.

Surprisingly, while the Indian media was awash with visuals of the ‘summoning’ of the Maldivian ambassador, there was no official readout from the MEA.

Official sources, who usually comment without attribution, also remained silent.

Similarly, the Maldivian foreign ministry had also not given any public statement on the visit of the Indian high commission on Monday.

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