Maldives: The Male gaze: Care for a quick Maldive?

Indians who have never wanted to go to the Maldives on vacation now don’t want to go vacationing to the Maldives. Which makes boycotting the Maldives as a holiday destination a wee bit easier. The highest number of tourists to the archipelagic state in the Indian Ocean do happen to be Indians. Of the 2,09,198 Indians who visited the Maldives in 2023, we don’t know how many have joined the call to boycott the country after some of its ministers didn’t speak well of our country and its head of government. But we know that Akshay Kumar, Sachin Tendulkar, Salman Khan and others, who are already familiar with the gorgeous waters of the self-described ‘100% Muslim Nation’, have certainly told fellow Indians to skip the country and try elsewhere instead.

How a spat between two governments can become a spat between the people of two countries can be easily explained by that mysterious but powerful tugging thing called national pride. So, the question is: are those who still plan to vacay in Male anti-Inde? Well, since the spat erupted, prices of New Delhi-Male round trips on Valentine’s Day have fallen. If nations can rightly have self-interest, could it be possible for individuals to have self-interest and go for a quick chhutti to the Maldives while the ‘boycott’ call is hot? Remember, you didn’t read it here.