New Delhi: Day after Bollywood celebrities joined hands to promote Lakshadweep as a tourist destination amid the ongoing row with the Maldives, megastar Amitabh Bachchan also shared his appreciation for the Indian island, praising the "astonishingly beautiful location".
The 81-year-old actor shared a post on X, formerly Twitter, by former cricketer Virendra Sehwag where the cricketer had condemned the "dig at our country and our Prime Minister by Maldives ministers".
"Bharat is knowing 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," Mr Sehwag wrote.
The Bollywood star took on the cricketer's call to name his "favourite unexplored beautiful places" and pitched Andaman and Lakshadweep Islands, praising the stunning beaches.
"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. We are Bharat. We are Atmanirbhar. Our self-reliance should not be questioned. Jai hind," he wrote on X.
On Sunday, actors Akshay Kumar, Varun Dhawan, Salman Khan, Shraddha Kapoor along with veteran cricketers Sachin Tendulkar, Venkatesh Prasad and Virender Sehwag had appealed to people to explore domestic islands instead of going to the Maldives.
The tussle between India and the Maldives began after three Maldivian ministers made derogatory posts on PM Modi's recent trip to Lakshadweep where he pitched the island as a domestic tourist destination. The comments were met with a huge backlash with #BoycottMaldives trending on social media and several Indian claiming to cancel their holiday to the island nation.
After the criticism, the government of Maldives suspended the three deputy ministers saying their personal views do not represent its position.