Actor Amitabh Bachchan has encouraged people to explore the beauty of Indian islands after a few Maldivian political leaders made derisive comments about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Lakshadweep. Taking to X (formerly known as Twitter) on Monday, Amitabh reacted to a post shared by former Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag. The veteran actor said “don’t harm our self-reliance”. (Also Read | Vir Das jokes about Indian celebrities and influencers being ‘terrified to post’ Maldives pics amid Lakshadweep row)
Amitabh talks about visiting Lakshadweep, Andamans
Amitabh shared Virender’s tweet and wrote, “Viru paji .. this is so relevant and in the right spirit of our land .. our own are the very best .. I have been to Lakshadweep and Andamans and they are such astonishingly beautiful locations .. stunning waters beaches and the underwater experience is simply unbelievable…Hum Bharat hai, hum atmanirbhar hai, humari atmanirbharta pe aanch mat daliye (We are India, we are self-reliant, don’t let anything blemish ourself-reliance), Jai Hind @virendersehwag.”
What Virender said about India’s beaches
Virender Sehwag shared several pictures of beaches in India on X and wrote, “Whether it be 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.”
What is the row about?
Several other Bollywood celebrities such as Shraddha Kapoor, Varun Dhawan, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Kangana Ranaut, John Abraham, and others have joined the ‘visit Lakshadweep campaign’ under the hashtag ExploreIndianIslands. This comes amid a row over derogatory social media remarks by some ministers in the Maldives on PM Modi’s recent visit to Lakshadweep. The Maldives government has distanced itself from the remarks made by its ministers.
What PM Modi had said about Lakshadweep
On January 2, PM Modi visited the Union Territory of Lakshadweep and shared several pictures, including an ‘exhilarating experience’ of him trying his hand at snorkelling. In a series of posts on X, PM Narendra Modi shared pictures of the white beaches, the pristine blue skies and the ocean and tagged them with a message that read, “For those who wish to embrace the adventurer in them, Lakshadweep has to be on your list.”
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