"India was in fact the first stop planned and proposed for a visit of a special envoy of the president of Maldives. However, the dates proposed were not suitable for the Indian leadership," Maldives Ambassador to India Ahmed Mohamed said.
Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj was on a visit to Saudi Arabia and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be setting out on a four-day, tour of UAE, Oman and Palestine tomorrow.
The Maldives Ambassador said they had even inquired if their foreign minister could meet a minister of state for foreign affairs.
We are hurt... We are reaching out," he told NDTV.
"We would want India to do even more than China... as we are neighbours...," Mr Mohamed said.
Maldives plunged into crisis last week after Mr Yameen refused to comply with a five-judge verdict of the Supreme Court quashing terrorism convictions against nine leading opposition figures including the exiled former Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed, who was the country's first democratically elected president.
Sources told NDTV that India's suggestion to defer the visit by the special envoy due to the unavailability of PM Modi and Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj in the country was also taken to drive home the message that President Yameen had not taken any "real action" on the concerns flagged by India and the international community.
India, which has said it was monitoring the situation very "closely", added on Tuesday that it was "disturbed" about the declaration of emergency by the Maldivian government and described as a matter of "concern" the arrests of the chief justice and political figures there.
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Yesterday, President Yameen had signaled that he was not backing down on the crackdown on the two Supreme Court judges. On Wednesday, the police announced the arrested Supreme Court judges and former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom had been charged with bribery and trying to pull down the government.
