The '
Boycott Maldives
' call has led to
Lakshadweep
setting a new worldwide record on Google. According to a report in news agency PTI, Google searches for Lakshadweep are at their highest in the last 20 years. The searches are said to be up by a huge margin reflecting a hockey stick graph.
MakeMyTrip too said in a post on X that it has observed a 3,400 per cent increase in on-platform searches for Lakshadweep ever since Prime Minister
Narendra Modi
's visit to the islands.
Aloke Bajpai, cofounder and group CEO of online travel agency Ixigo, said on X that there has been a "2,900% increase in searches to Lakshadweep in the last 3-4 days
The furore and how it started
This huge spurt in interest for Lakshadweep is the result of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visit to Lakshadweep island. PM Modi visited beaches and took part in adventure activities in the form of snorkeling. In a series of posts on X, formerly Twitter, PM Modi shared pictures of the white beaches, the pristine blue skies and the ocean. "For those who wish to embrace the adventurer in them, Lakshadweep has to be on your list. During my stay, I also tried snorkeling - what an exhilarating experience it was!," said PM Modi in a post. "And those early morning walks along the pristine beaches were also moments of pure bliss," he wrote in another post.
A massive row started after Maldives' three deputy ministers, along with other cabinet members and government officials, made derogatory and unsavory references to PM Modi's Lakshadweep visit. They also made fun of Lakshadweep and India's beach destinations.
Many netizens on social media wrote that they have canceled their scheduled trips to the Maldives. The hashtag "Boycott Maldives" has been trending for over 48 hours.
Joining the 'boycott campaign', EaseMyTrip, an online travel aggregator, said it has suspended all flight bookings to the island nation on its website "in solidarity" with India.
English (US) ·