Everything that started as a harmless campaign by PM Narendra Modi to promote Lakshadweep tourism has scaled up into a campaign against Maldives. For Indians, Maldives have been great travel destination because of the eye-candy locale and state-of-art hotels, room service. Now, Boycott Maldives is trending on X, formerly Twitter, and many Indians are canceling their plans to travel to the islands.
Andaman & Nicobar Islands have been more popular than Lakshadweep for tourism. Not many people look forward to plan their travel to these islands or beaches. PM Narendra Modi’s campaign has been a welcome change for Indian Tourism. But his campaign of being in Lakshadweep beaches has been seen as India’s move against Maldives domination in Indian Ocean Region, tourism.
As Maldives have been favoring China over India, this campaign has said to be a move against the island nation. While this is just a perception, Delhi officials did not confirm any of their plans about the same. On social media, the photos of PM Narendra Modi have gone viral and few politicians from Maldives triggered Indians with their reactions.
Minister Mariyam Shiuna, MP Zahid Rameez have made derogatory comments hurting dignity of Indians. These comments have snowballed and celebrities like Akshay Kumar, Salman Khan, Kangana Ranaut, John Abraham and Shraddha Kapoor made their stance against Maldives, clear. With their comments, Boycott Maldives campaign has become trending one on social media. The battle intensified too much.
Now, India has summoned Maldivian High Commissioner Ibrahim Shaheeb to give explanation about these comments. Maldives government has reacted and asked politicians to explain their statements. Also, they have asked all politicians to maintain dignity in their replies as battle snowballed. Now, several Indians started canceling their plans to visit Maldives. Let’s see how this will end.