The air in India is thick with national politics—all eyes are set on the gathering storm, trying to read straws in the wind. Big election results, a sense of tectonic plates shifting, court verdicts on high-profile cases like Rafale and 1984…it’s all happening. Commoners and pundits alike could be pardoned for not having developments in far-away Maldives uppermost on their minds, or for not devoting time to seemingly elusive trends in foreign affairs. But if you do a quick CT-scan of India’s often ailing neighbourhood, the image slices will reveal a lot of furious action. Pakistan has a mint-fresh prime minister. Bangladesh may (or may not) get one as the New Year dawns: the country votes on December 30. Sri Lanka got a new premier too—or was it two of them?—no, as the dust settled over a most incredible clash of the country’s institutions, the old PM seems to be back. Then Maldives….