Modi Sends Out 'Strong Message' to Maldives Through Lakshadweep Visit
PM Modi has said that Lakshadweep would play a "significant role" in India's journey to become a developed nation by 2047, when New Delhi would celebrate its centennial independence anniversary.
SputnikIndian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pitched the Arabian Sea archipelago of Lakshadweep, the smallest Union Territory of India, as a tourist hotspot as the 73-year-old leader shared his "exhilarating" experience of snorkeling in the pristine waters at the islands.
"In addition to the scenic beauty, Lakshadweep's tranquillity is also mesmerising. It gave me an opportunity to reflect on how to work even harder for the welfare of 140 crore (1.4 billion) Indians. For those who wish to embrace the adventurer in them, Lakshadweep has to be on your list," Prime Minister Modi said in a social media post on Thursday, a day after he concluded his visit to the strategically-located Indian island chain.
During an address at the stone-laying ceremony and inauguration of developmental projects in Lakshadweep on 3 January, Modi underscored that New Delhi was making all-out efforts to "position Lakshadweep prominently on the international tourism map."
The appeal of the Indian Prime Minister has been re-tweeted by Indian Embassies and High Commissions across the world, stoking a public debate in India about the islands' tourism potential as well as the larger message Modi intended to convey through his visit.
Commodore (retired) Seshadri Vasan, an Indian Navy veteran and the Director-General of Indian think tank Chennai Centre for China Studies (C3S), told Sputnik India, that the main message behind these social media posts by the Prime Minister seems to be that Lakshadweep could be developed as an "alternative tourist destination."
Citing official statistics, Vasan explained that around a third of Maldives' annual revenues were generated from tourism.
In 2022, as noted by the two governments, New Delhi ranked as the top source of tourists for the Maldives.
“Prime Minister Modi thus seems to be pushing to developing this as an alternative tourist destination for not only Indian travellers, but also for those from Europe and the Middle East, many of them known to frequent the Maldives,” stated Vasan.
He noted that such a policy would be in line with Modi's push to promote the domestic tourism industry.
India-Maldives Ties Under President Muizzu
Vasan stressed that Modi’s visit to the Lakshadweep has sent out a “clear and strong strategic message” to the Maldives and other countries in the region as well.
Maldives’ new President Mohamed Muizzu, who assumed office in November,
asked Prime Minister Modi to withdraw nearly 75 Indian military personnel stationed in the country during a meeting between the two leaders in Dubai last month.
Most of the Indian personnel stationed in the Maldives are involved in operations and maintanence of Indian military platforms carrying out Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations.
The new Maldives government has also said that it won’t renew the hydrographic pact with the Indian Navy, thus breaking from the tradition of the predecessor Ibrahim Solih government who championed an ‘India First’ policy.
Further, Muizzu has
decided to skip India as his first destination for a foreign visit after assuming power, a tradition which has been followed by most of the incoming leaders across
South Asia, where India is seen as the pre-eminent power and a net provider of security.
On Thursday, the Maldivian Presidency announced that Muizzu would be visiting China on a five-day visit from 7 to 12 January, raising eyebrows in the Indian strategic community.
India's
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has said that it
closely monitors any development in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) which have a direct bearing on New Delhi's national security.
Significance of Lakshadweep to India
Lakshadweep, comprising 36 islands, is located at a distance of 220 kilometres from India's south-western coast. According to the website of the local government, only 10 of the islands are inhabited, with a population of nearly 73,000 people.
In spite of boasting white sand beaches, corals and coastal lagoons, the islands have been left relatively undeveloped by successive Indian governments, a point observed by Primne Minister Modi during his public engagements on the archipalego this week.
"In the last 10 years, the Central Government has
left no stone unturned to enhance the ease of living for the people of Lakshadweep," PM Modi underscored at a public meeting, as he inaugurated drinking water, solar power and other developmental projects on the islands.
Vasan said that the islands were an
important "naval outpost" for India in the Arabian Sea and the western
Indian Ocean.
"We already have Indian Navy and Indian Coast Guard (ICG) monitoring stations there. India has been using its military facilities there for purposes such as medical evacuation as well as keeping the Sea Lines of Communications (SLOC) under observation,” the Navy veteran said.
He stated that under Prime Minister Modi, India has increasingly shored up its “surveillance capabilities” on the island chain, a process which had begun under the previous Congress-led government.
India inaugurated its first naval base, INS Dweeprakshak, at the Lakshadweep in 2012. In 2016, a naval detachment was commissioned on the island.
According to reports, New Delhi is now augmenting the capacity of an airstrip in Lakshadweep from currently 1 kilometre to 3.2 kilometre so it could handle advanced surveillance planes such as P8I Poseidon.
“India would cement its role as the first responder to any crisis in the Indian Ocean as well as being a net security provider, a position he said India has held since the 1980s. China would never be able to match India's response capabilities in the Indian Ocean Region unless they start to deploy troops in the region,” Vasan asserted.