A row triggered by some Maldivian ministers ridiculing PM Narendra Modi escalated on Monday, with government discussing the matter with Male's envoy even as some travel companies stopped sales of packages to the archipelago and issued boycott calls.
Amid growing outrage over the provocation from the ministers of Maldives, which has, after the recent polls, taken an anti-India position, travel portals reported a massive surge in search for idyllic Indian destinations like Lakshadweep and Andaman & Nicobar Islands by potential holidayers. The campaign against Maldives appears to be driven by sheer fury, considering that Lakshadweep does not have the infrastructure to host a large number of tourists.
Online travel agency MakeMyTrip said it had “observed a 3,400% increase in on-platform searches for Lakshadweep ever since PM Modi’s visit”. Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) issued an “appeal to boycott Maldives” while travel portal EaseMyTrip said it had suspended all flight bookings to the island nation “in solidarity” with India, making the retaliation against the comments look like undeclared non-state economic sanction on the island nation for which the money spent by Indian tourists, the largest from any country, has been a big source of revenue.
Travel industry veteran Subhash Goyal, who heads ICC’s aviation and tourism committee, appealed to Indian trade associations to “stop promoting Maldives” and divert “such queries to Lakshadweep and Andaman & Nicobar Islands”. That did not seem to matter, with Goyal even suggesting that other destinations such as Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Bali and Phuket should be promoted at Maldives’s cost.
He urged Indian carriers to suspend flights to Maldives and asked Indian hotel companies to invest in Lakshadweep “for better returns”. His STC Travels has stopped selling Maldives packages and tickets.
The day started with senior MEA officials discussing the current situation in ties with Maldives high commissioner Ibrahim Shaheeb, underlining its position that it found the ministers’ behaviour unacceptable. There was no readout of the meeting and official sources refrained from confirming that Shaheeb had been summoned, as some reports had claimed.
“There was a meeting and the Indian side expressed its concerns again but to say that he was summoned is unnecessary,” said a source. A day earlier, India had registered a strong protest with Male. The Maldivian media reported on Monday that government had summoned Indian high commissioner Munu Mahawar.
(With inputs from agencies)