Google search for Lakshadweep islands at 20-year high

New Delhi, January 8

Amid an escalating diplomatic row following disparaging remarks against India by some Maldivian ministers, local celebrities led by Amitabh Bachchan began powering Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s push for exploration of domestic beach destinations over the Maldives.

“We are India, we are self-reliant. Do not undermine our self-reliance,” Bachchan said on X in reaction to a post by former cricketer Virender Sehwag, who hailed beaches of Udupi, Pondi and Andamans to urged Indians to travel locally.

“Be it the beautiful beaches of Udupi, Paradise Beach in Pondi, Neil and Havelock in Andaman, and many other beautiful beaches throughout our country, there are so many unexplored places in Bharat which have so much potential with some infrastructure support. Bharat is known for converting all ‘aapda’ into ‘avsar’, and this dig at our country and our Prime Minister by Maldives ministers is a great ‘avsar’ for Bharat to create just the necessary infrastructure to make them attractive to tourists and boost our economy. Please do name your favourite unexplored beautiful places,” said Sehwag.

Cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar, actors Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, John Abraham, Shraddha Kapoor among several others took to X to urge Indians to choose Lakshadweep for a holiday destination over the Maldives. This on a day when Google analytics revealed that Lakshadweep as a search word touched a 20-year high in search trends.

The worldwide search interest for Lakshadweep soared after PM Modi visited the island and posted frames capturing him in a leisurely mood along its pristine beaches. Salman Khan, in a post on X, said, “It is so cool to see our PM Narendra Modi at the beautiful clean and stunning beaches of Lakshadweep, and the best part is that yeh hamare India mein hain.”

Government ministers also floated hashtag #DekhoApnaDesh and #ExploreIndianIslands.