Indian tourists vow to #BoycottMaldives after ministers call Modi a 'clown', 'puppet of Israel'

Indian tourists have started cancelling visits to the sun-kissed beaches of the Maldives as a social media call to boycott the island has gone viral in the world's most populous country following disparaging remarks made about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The controversy erupted after three Maldivian ministers - Malsha Shareef, Mariyam Shiuna and Abdulla Mahzoom Majid - called Modi a "clown", "terrorist" and "puppet of Israel" in reference to India's support of Israel in the Gaza war.

The comments of the officials, who have since been suspended over the matter, came in response to a video on the X platform of Modi visiting the Indian islands of Lakshadweep, north of the Maldives, to promote local tourism.

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Modi also shared pictures of the pristine white beaches, tagging one with a message that read: "For those who wish to embrace the adventurer in them, Lakshadweep has to be on your list."

But the Maldivian ministers' angry reaction to Modi's post has in turn provoked fury among Indians, who, along with Russians, account for the largest number of visitors to the archipelago nation.

Businesses in India have stopped promoting the Maldives completely, "as a reaction to the insult by the Maldives' ministers to our country and prime minister", said Subhash Goyal, the New Delhi-based president of the Confederation of Tourism Professionals.

"This will definitely last until the ministers apologise."

On Monday, EaseMyTrip, one of India's largest travel platforms, suspended flight bookings to the Maldives after the controversy further embittered relations between the South Asian neighbours, which had already hit a low point after the new Maldivian government, under Prime Minister Mohamed Muizzu, came to power on an anti-India campaign.

EaseMyTrip co-founder and executive director Prashant Pitti said his firm had suspended bookings to the Maldives "indefinitely" and that it would promote Lakshadweep over any foreign location, even though it might cause them to see a "temporary dip in international tourism".

Delhi summoned Maldivian envoy Ibrahim Shaheeb a day after India's mission in Male "strongly raised and expressed concerns" with the Maldivian foreign ministry on Sunday, according to Reuters. China and India have reportedly been vying for influence over the island nation.

Members of India's biggest film industry, Bollywood, as well as cricket stars, have come out in support of the "#BoycottMaldives" social media hashtag and voiced support for Modi's call to promote Lakshadweep.

Rakesh Gupta, director of sales and marketing for India for Sun Siam Resorts Maldives, one of the island nation's largest resort groups, said the impact had actually been moderate and was optimistic it would soon blow over.

"The government of the Maldives has taken stern action, and they have issued clarifications that the views expressed [by the ministers] were personal," he said. But Gupta added that it would take at least a week to 10 days before the full impact on tourism in the Maldives could be known.

India's second-largest business newspaper, Mint, quoted Arshdeep Anand, executive committee member of the Outbound Tour Operators Association of India, as saying that up to 8,000 cancellations for hotel bookings in the Maldives by small groups from India may have occurred from January 6-7.

"The relationship between the two nations was going through stress anyway with the coming into power of the new government in the Maldives," said Harsh Pant, an international-relations professor at King's College London.

"This episode has brought these tensions out in the open.

"You will certainly see some impact as there will be many in India who will take this episode seriously. But if the Maldives handles it pragmatically, there is no reason for it to last," he said.

The Maldives have traditionally been an ally of India, given its physical proximity, and its strategic importance has remained one of Delhi's foreign policy priorities.

But the nation has drifted towards Beijing after Abdulla Yameen, the half-brother of former dictator Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, was elected as president in 2013.

Muizzu is in China this week for a week-long visit, during which he will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang in Beijing, where pacts from infrastructure to tourism are expected to be signed.

Indian citizens have been flooding X with posts supporting the campaign to promote domestic tourism in places like Andaman, Nicobar and Lakshadweep, over the Maldives in wake of the controversy.

"I have decided to #BoycottMaldives With such a beautiful place in Bharat [India], why go elsewhere !!," wrote X user Vijay Gautam.

But some denounced the boycott call as self-destructive to Indians.

"The Hindu supremacists in India who are calling for the Indian tourists to boycott the Maldives - do they know that 33,000 Indians work in the Maldives' tourist industry and send to India US$55 million in remittances?

Indian tourists are only 11 per cent of the Maldives' total tourist arrivals," wrote professor Ashok Swain of Sweden's Uppsala University on X, referring to supporters of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

Indian tourism industry executives said the entire episode should provoke introspection about the country's tourism facilities rather than emotions.

"Lakshadweep is magnificent, but neither does it have hotels nor does it have [sufficient] flights. They will destroy it if there is unplanned growth," said Rajeev Kohli, president of Euromic, a non-profit marketing association for destination management companies specialising in events. "You have to have the infrastructure."

Others agreed that Lakshadweep's facilities could not cope with a sudden influx of tourists.

"This [controversy] could prove to be a blessing in disguise. It will help us to improve the tourism infrastructure in Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar Islands," Goyal said.

Additional reporting by Reuters

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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