On January 10, Maldivian news portal Adhadhu reported that the juvenile court’s website was hacked by Indian hackers. A screenshot of the message displayed on the site includes an Indian flag and a very long message in English. The hack was carried out “with the help of Team Network9” and claimed to be “We are Bharatiya Hackers”. To dispel any doubts that these are Indian hackers, he was also given two hashtags: “#ExploreIndianIslands” and “#Lakshadweep”.
At this point in India-Maldives relations, it doesn’t matter whether Indians actually carried out the hacking. In fact, a third party may be taking advantage of current relationship tensions. What the incompetent, Instagram-loving Southern Bloc and those driving India’s foreign policy in the Prime Minister’s Office need to understand is that this hack follows a series of recent website hacks. This means that many Maldivians believe that Indians are indeed Indian. behind it. These include Maldivians who have lived and studied in India or who have admired India for decades.
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The spat began after Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Indian archipelago of Lakshadweep, north of the Maldives, and posted on X (formerly Twitter) about the beauty of the islands. “For anyone who wants to embrace themselves as an adventurer, Lakshadweep should be on your list. I also tried snorkeling during my stay and it was such an exhilarating experience!” He promotes Lakshadweep I also made other posts.
The same day, hundreds of right-wing handles and BJP supporters started trending Lakshadweep and slamming the Maldives, which has long been a favorite vacation destination for India’s glamorous and the world’s ultra-rich. Ta. “What a great move! This is a huge setback for the new Chinese puppet government in the Maldives. It will also boost tourism in #Lakshadweep,” posted @MrSinha_, a known far-right influencer. By January 10th, the post had been viewed 3.2 million times.
Soon, many Maldivians began retaliating by defending their country. Some denigrated Indians as a whole. Unfortunately, three Maldivian government officials reacted with intemperance and went one step further to ridicule the Indian Prime Minister. Deputy Minister of Youth Empowerment Maryam Siuna tweeted. A puppet of Israeli diver Narendra wearing a life jacket. ” It also didn’t help that many Indian handles used photos of the Maldivian islands while promoting Lakshadweep, which became the butt of jokes in their own right.
What followed was a social media rampage led by right-wing trolls in India, who attacked not only the Maldives but also three officials with hashtags calling for a boycott of the country. As usual, the Bharatiya Janata Party has chosen its favorite pliant celebrities from the sports, film and corporate worlds (ironically The very people who vacation in the Maldives) were brought in to support the campaign. Promote holidays in Lakshadweep and India.
not very neutral
In fact, the initial provocation may have come from the Indian right-wing, which simply promoted Lakshadweep and chose to disparage the Maldives at the same time. Maldivians with whom this correspondent is in regular contact were surprised by the vulgar and humiliating language emanating from known Indian handles – at least some of which are also followed by the Indian Prime Minister. Ta. Unfortunately, even so-called neutral observers seem to overlook this.
CNN’s article began with the prime minister’s tweet praising Lakshadweep, followed by reactions from three Maldives officials. Even foreign affairs experts like Brahma Chellaney (@Chellaney) have fallen into nationalistic mode. “Three Maldivian ministers have posted derogatory comments about India, Indians, and Mr. Modi, but Indian media only mentions their comments about Mr. Modi, as if comparing India to cow dung or “It’s as if insulting people or Indians in general is not newsworthy,” he said. Posted on January 9th by X.
It soon became a full-fledged diplomatic dispute. Indian High Commissioner to Maldives takes up issue of ‘defamation’ of Indian Prime Minister, Maldivian officials suspended, Indian Ministry of External Affairs summons Maldivian High Commissioner, right-wingers attack those who post nice things about Maldives . . To make matters worse, an Indian travel aggregator removed Male as a destination from its travel website, an almost opportunistic move as flights from India to the archipelago were not affected. . Some commercial entities have announced that they will no longer do business with the Maldives.
fall out
Two issues need to be considered. One is the impact of this dispute on India-Maldives relations and the other is the impact on Lakshadweep as a tourist destination.
The timing of this uproar couldn’t have been worse. The incident exploded just as Maldives President Mohamed Muiz was beginning his second overseas trip – to China. Unlike previous presidents, Muiz did not visit New Delhi on his first foreign trip. He chose Tolkier. And he named China second. By the time Muiz landed in China, under attack by Maldivian rebels and fearing that an Indian boycott would become a reality, one of the first things he did was to attract more tourists to the Maldives. The plan was to request China to send a China can literally turn on the faucet and increase tourist flow to any destination. Tourists from the Maldives were called back due to the coronavirus pandemic, but the flow of tourists did not recover even after the coronavirus, as then-President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih promoted an “India First” policy. .
On January 10, Chinese President Xi Jinping received the instructions. He did his best to roll out the red carpet for Muiz. The official meeting between Mr. Kide and Mr. Xi was held at the East Hall of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Foreign Minister Moosa Zamir said: “It has been a constructive dialogue and we are excited about the positive progress ahead.” The Maldives Presidential Office announced on January 11 that the Maldives and China have signed 20 memorandums of understanding. Of particular interest is the decision to “elevate China-Maldives relations to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership.” This relationship will last from 2024 to 2028.
There are no details yet on what this means, and the outline of the 20 memorandums has not yet been released. Two days before Taiwan’s presidential election, Muiz clearly brought his country into China’s orbit, and Taiwan firmly adheres to the “one China policy.” In response, China stated that it “firmly opposes” external interference in the Maldives’ internal affairs.
The social media war between Lakshadweep and the Maldives was an unnecessary provocation, given that Muiz came to power on an anti-India campaign and continued to actively demand that India withdraw its small number of troops from the islands. Ta. In October 2023, a similar high-pitched social media campaign supporting Israel and attacking Palestine had to be quietly amended by an official diplomatic statement expressing India’s solidarity with Palestine and the Palestinian homeland. It may take months of diplomacy to rectify the current chill in India-Maldives relations. It is unclear whether her IT cell in the BJP is aware of the extent of the harm caused by its troll army.
The second issue is tourism. The patriotic cheerleaders of Lakshadweep have apparently never visited the island itself. This is a secluded, environmentally friendly zone that carefully controls the islands’ carbon footprint. The islands have poor infrastructure and few connections to the mainland. He has only one daily flight from Cochin to Agatti on Alliance Airlines. It seats 60 people and is almost always full due to high local demand. Only 2 out of 5 ferries ply between Lakshadweep and Cochin at any given time. Government officials use helicopters.
A dispute over compensation for private land confiscated by the government for infrastructure construction has ended in a court stay order. Lakshadweep is India’s smallest union territory, covering an area of ​​32 square kilometers and spanning 36 remote islands, only a few of which are connected by intermittent and slow ferries. .
There are only 100 rooms on the entire island. Bangaram Island, where former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi stayed, has 59 rooms. This is the largest accommodation complex in the archipelago. Kalpeni has a 30-bed transit accommodation facility that can also be rented to tourists. He has one resort in the capital Kavaratti and one in Minicoy, but his 10 tents in Thinnakara have not reopened even after the coronavirus outbreak. Lakshadweep is definitely a great place, but it’s not for the average Indian traveler who values ​​food and shopping. It’s more geared toward avid snorkelers and deep-sea divers, and has long been a serious diving destination.
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Compare this to the Maldives, which will host around 1.8 million tourists in 2023 and is teeming with cruise tourists, luxury resorts, boutique hotels, spas, and more. Tourism is a focus for the Maldives and its model does not necessarily need to be imitated. Lakshadweep is run by a lieutenant governor who is extremely unpopular with the people. The introduction of alcohol sales on the island (the island was an arid area and off-limits to resorts and service personnel), the ban on beef, and various other new regulations meant that the people were almost completely Muslim. It has been speculated that he may have been dispatched to a religious area. The islands have been given a special mission by the BJP government.
While the Prime Minister’s enthusiasm for Lakshadweep is understandable, it is unfortunate that his PR/IT department and indiscriminate trolls have sparked a fierce battle with the neighboring country, with long-term negative effects on both tourism and diplomacy. Ta.