Why Maldivian ministers actually helped Narendra Modi

Most Indians who travel within the country for leisure mostly prefer pilgrimage spots, and Ayodhya will get the lion’s share of that traffic for quite a while. Although, given the sheer number of Indians—1.4 billion and counting—even the fraction who do not head for temple towns is enough to swamp most domestic destinations in peak season. And Lakshadweep is currently in the public eye thanks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s endorsement. The lakhs who will head to Ayodhya are not all potential snorkellers too. But most of those interested in Lakshadweep are misled by its name. It does not comprise 1,00,000 islands off the Kerala coast but just 36 atolls. Of them only 17 have islands; the rest are reefs in the turquoise waters of the Laccadive Sea. Thanks to history and happenstance Maldives got the lion’s share of the archipelago that was once collectively Lakshadweep or “one lakh islands.” Maldives has 1,194 to India’s 36, and the southern-most 7 atolls comprise the Chagos Islands. Of Maldives’ 1,194 ‘dweeps’, only 200 are inhabited and 164 of those have tourist facilities—172 resorts, 883 guest houses, 13 hotels and 152 tourist vessels—which hosted a record 1.7 million tourists in 2023, of which roughly 2.1 lakh each were from India and Russia; Chinese tourists were third at around 25,000 less. Lakshadweep’s facilities are abysmal in comparison. But India’s interest in the region is not new. Just over 1,000 years ago, Emperor Rajendra Chola conquered the entire archipelago as part of his campaign in Chera country. Over 1,200 years before that, the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka’s daughter Sanghamitra is believed to have brought Buddhism there. More recently, the part of Lakshadweep that is now Indian was under the suzerainty of the Chirakkals and then the Arakkals of Kerala besides Tipu Sultan. So there must be a deeper purpose to Prime Minister Modi’s support for India’s part of the picturesque archipelago that has remained curiously under the radar of most Indians, and also of the hospitality industry. It is hard to say which one is to blame for Lakshadweep’s lethargy: has its relative lack of facilities ensured tourist disinterest all these years or the other way round? The last time it was really in the news was when another prinme minister holidayed there—in 1987. Of course, Rajiv Gandhi’s winter fam-jam there was in news for all the wrong reasons back then. It was reported that he used a ship of the Indian Navy to get there to join the 24-strong party of family and friends. Moreover, as the chosen island, Bangaram, lacked most facilities, everything had to be transported there from the mainland for the jamboree, obviously at public cost, from huts, helipads and electricity generators to cooks, food and drinking water. Blame it on the lack of social media back then but the only real fillip that Lakshadweep got from the prime minister’s holiday was that the VVIP “cottages” in Bangaram were repaired and prettied up, two new ones were added as was a conference hall. There was also a somewhat predictable “interest” in the destination soon after by the ruling Congress (I) groupies: two Parliamentary committees also decided to have their meetings in Lakshadweep. Thereafter Lakshadweep sank back into obscurity. So when India opened up in 1991 and Indians finally had the wherewithal to travel, the far better developed islands next door, the Maldives, reaped the benefit and continues to do so. Unlike Maldives, India does not have many atolls in Lakshadweep to develop to handle even a small fraction of the 1.7 billion tourist stays logged domestically last year, so can boosting tourism there be the prime minister’s only intention? Lakshadweep does need and can handle more inflows but should follow the Bhutan model of well-regulated high-end tourism. India’s extremities—the eight northeastern states, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep—and its hill stations are all ecologically sensitive and cannot be over-run by budget tourists. Even Puducherry is already bearing the brunt of over-popularity. The prime minister must have considered that when stoking interest in Lakshadweep. The Taj group announcing two luxury projects in Lakshadweep is a step in the right direction, as that is what Maldives offers too. But India needs to boost infrastructure in Lakshadweep for other important reasons, not the least of which is the fact that the Maldives is inching closer to China with the election of its new President Mohamed Muizzu. Not surprisingly, he has exhorted China to make-up for the shortfall created by a boycott by Indian tourists. As Chinese companies had leased a Maldivian island in 2016 to develop but mysteriously opted out in 2022, a proposal for a proper Chinese naval base after the return of a more “friendly” government cannot be ruled out. China already had a hand in the expansion of Maldives’ airport. The Chagos Islands are home to the US military base of Diego Garcia, which underlines the strategic importance of the archipelago, of which the prime minister is also very aware. Providing for rising tourism gives India the perfect reason to enhance critical infrastructure like airports, and upgrade ship and road connectivity. Since 2012 India has a naval base, INS Dweeprakshak, at Kavaratti Island, primarily to protect shipping lanes, and three Coast Guard stations to oversee 20,000 sqkm of territorial waters and a 4,00,000 sq km exclusive economic zone, near the very busy Nine Degree Channel at the bottom of the chain of islands. This 200 km wide channel that separates Minicoy Island from the rest of Lakshadweep is key as all commercial shipping from West Asia passes through it to the East. Thus, the prime minister’s announcement of an airport in Minicoy to handle both military and commercial aircraft makes tactical sense. Extending the runway at Agatti airport also indicates that Lakshadweep is meant to be not only a tourist alternative to the Maldives but also a strategic counterpoint. The prime minister must have been well aware of how Indians would respond to photos of him snorkelling and sitting at that pristine beach. The three silly young keyboard-happy Maldivian ministers simply provided even more justification for India to speed up infrastructure development by posting rude comments about him on social media that instantly triggered massive retaliatory tourism interest in Lakshadweep from lakhs of indignant Indians. Checkmate. That little fact must have struck President Muizzu too and led to the instant suspension of those feckless Maldivian ministers and many subsequent official calming overtures to India. After all, China would not be very pleased with the bona fide reason that India now has, to develop Lakshadweep’s tourism—and therefore also strategic—infrastructure. China, like many others, must now be wondering if the prime minister’s real goal was only to encourage tourism there. The author is a freelance writer. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. 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