Twitter war triggers a butterfly effect in Maharashtra politics

 By Venkatesh Raghavan

Mumbai: Singer Rihanna and activist Greta Thunberg tweeting in favour of the Indian farmers’ protest movement has created a butterfly effect. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) was the first to take cognizance and state that it amounted to interfering in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation. Later on, the MEA view found support from a galaxy of stars both from Bollywood and sports circles.

why aren’t we talking about this?! #FarmersProtest https://t.co/obmIlXhK9S

— Rihanna (@rihanna) February 2, 2021

It included legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar, cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar and a host of celebrities including cricketers and film icons. They all expressed their sentiment supporting the union government and ministry’s stand that there was no need for outside intervention of any form in India’s internal matters and as Indians we stand firm and united on this count.

India’s sovereignty cannot be compromised. External forces can be spectators but not participants.
Indians know India and should decide for India. Let’s remain united as a nation.#IndiaTogether #IndiaAgainstPropaganda

— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) February 3, 2021

#IndiaTogether #IndiaAgainstPropaganda pic.twitter.com/JpUKyoB4vn

— Lata Mangeshkar (@mangeshkarlata) February 3, 2021

The reaction pouring in from several celebrities almost unanimously set the opposition parties in Maharashtra on a witch hunt trail. MNS chief Raj Thackeray was the first to pick on the issue, stating, “The government should not have involved big icons like Sachin and Lata for such a purpose. It would have sufficed if they had stuck to using stars like Akshay Kumar to support their propaganda. By using icons like Sachin and Lata, the government has belittled their stature in front of their countrymen.”

Also read: MEA urges foreign individuals and entities to ascertain facts before rushing to comment on the farmers’ protests

Other bigwigs in Maharashtra politics including Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar too jumped into the fray seeking a probe on whether celebrities of this level were being coerced by the Centre to tweet in its favour. Pawar took a serious note which cautioned Tendulkar in making any observations on such issues that concerned the farming community of the country. Uddhav has demanded a thorough probe into how the tweets from these celebrities seemed to be more or less synchronized and used similar verbiage.

While from the cricketing side, there were many current heroes including Ajinkya Rahane and Virat Kohli, the film fraternity had Akshay Kumar, Karan Johar and Suniel Shetty among a host of others who tweeted in favour of non-interference in India’s internal affairs from external elements. The twitter war which has spilled on to the political platform, has now taken a bigger twist with state-level leaders demanding a police probe into whether coercion or intimidatory tactics were used in making the celebrities tweet in favour of the Centre. The politicos voiced their concern stating, “If the police probe reveals that there was an element of coercion, these celebrities should be given adequate protection.”

In addition, there were also some sharp insinuations against batting legend Sachin Tendulkar that dubbed his act as “spineless.” At present the twitter imbroglio has precipitated a situation where both those against and for the union government’s stand are trading bitter war of words. It was not only film fraternity or cricketers who were at the receiving end of the Maharashtra state government’s ire. Badminton legend Saina Nehwal too was made to feel the heat. According to a political observer, tweets coming from Saina and actor Suneil Shetty had almost similar verbiage and this smacked of a conspiracy carried out by the Centre.