Suspended Mauritian minister Mariyam Shiuna on Monday apologised for one of her social media posts, where she allegedly disrespected the Indian national flag.
The now-deleted social media post showed a campaign poster of an opposition party, where the party's logo had been replaced with the Ashok Chakra on the Indian flag, ahead of the general elections in Maldives, according to an India Today report.
Shiuna, who belongs to the ruling party of Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu used her now-deleted social media post to call for a vote for her party.
The post, however, recieved severe backlash from users from India who demanded President Muizzu to take stern action against his party leader after which Shiuna deleted the post and tendered an apology.
Taking to social media platform X, she wrote: "It was brought to my attention that the image used in my response to the Maldivian opposition party MDP bore a resemblance to the Indian flag. I want to make it clear that this was entirely unintentional, and I sincerely regret any misunderstanding it may have caused."
"Maldives deeply value its relationship and, the mutual respect we share with India," Shiuna said.
The development comes amid a diplomatic row between India and Maldives following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Lakshdweep where he promoted the island's beauty on social media, leading to disparaging remarks from Maldivian officials including Shiuna against PM Modi.
"In future I will be more vigilant in verifying the content I share to prevent such oversights," she added.