Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh ordered a probe into whether the BJP pressured celebrities, including Bharat Ratna awardees Lata Mangeshkar, Sachin Tendulkar and actor Akshay Kumar into putting out tweets in response to the global criticism of the Government’s handling of the farmers’ ongoing agitation.
Responding to a demand by Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant and other leaders who urged him to look into the tweets put out by the celebrities, Deshmukh said, “Looking at a host of tweets put out by the celebrities (in response to the global criticism of the Government’s handling of the farmers’ ongoing agitation), the questions that arise about the timing of the tweets and whether pressure was brought to bear on these celebrities to put out near similar tweets. For instance, the tweets put out by Akshay Kumar and Saina Nehwal are identical”.
“The media is already under tremendous pressure from the Government. If political leaders criticise the BJP, the Government lets loose the ED and CBI on them.... We will enquire into the issue raised by you. Our intelligence agencies will enquire into whether the BJP put pressure on the celebrities to identical or near identical tweets put by the celebrities at the same time,” Deshmukh said.
Deshmukh, who has quarantined himself after testing positive after testing positive for Covid-19, held a zoom meeting with Sawant and other Congress leaders.
The Minister said that the State Government will also look into the role of a Mumbai BJP office-bearer who had been tagged by actor Suniel Shetty in his tweet.
Among other things, Deshmukh slammed the BJP for its efforts to defame the farmers who had been agitating peacefully for the past 70 days and the manner in which violence was unleashed in the national Capital on January 26.
“The manner in which the Government is trying to sabotage the farmers’ agitation has evoked negative reactions not just in the country but also internationally. After international pop star Rihanna and others reacted to the developments in India, our celebrities from various fields like Lata didi, Sachin Tendulkar have raised objections to the tweets by the people like Rihanna and others. But the timing and identical content of tweets put out by our celebrities have thrown up a question whether celebrities put out the tweets under some pressure,” Deshmukh said.
Sawant, who made a presentation before Deshmukh on the issue at the Zoom meeting, said: “Anyone can comment on any issues. But, in this case, we see a similar content and the same timing. From this, it appears as if a script was given to the celebrities concerned. The whole thing needs to be investigated to check if the BJP was behind the whole thing”.
“Akshay Kumar and Saina Nehwal tweeted the exact same thing and actor Suniel Shetty tagged a BJP leader. While everyone has a right to express themselves, we want the Government to probe whether these people were pressured by the Government into putting out tweets of a similar nature and at the same times,” Sawant said.
The twitter war broke out between international celebrities and their Indian counterparts after pop star Rihanna, environmental activist Greta Thunberg and adult star Mia Khalifa put out posts last week in support of the farmers’ agitation. In retaliation, Indian celebrities - including Bollywood actors and sports persons --took twitter in a big way and posted counter-tweets.
Incidentally, many of the celebrities used similar hashtags like #IndiaTogether, #IndiaAgainstPropaganda etc to contradict the tweets posted by Rihanna and others in support of the agitating farmers.
It may be recalled that on February 3, Tendulkar put out tweets with hashtags #IndiaTogether, #IndiaAgainstPropaganda: “External forces can be spectators but not participants. Indians know India and should decide for India. Let’s remain united as a nation.”
The same day, Mangeshkar also tweeted with the same two hashtags: “Namaskar. India is a glorious nation and we all Indians stand with our heads held high. As a proud Indian, I have full faith that any issues or problems that as a country we face; we are fully equipped to resolve them amicably, keeping the interest of our people in mind. Jai Hind.”
Coincidentally, Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar and sports star Saina Nehwal had posted identical tweets on February 3 which read thus: “Farmers constitute an extremely important part of our country. And the efforts being undertaken to resolve their issues are evident. Let’s support an amicable resolution, rather than paying attention to anyone creating differences.”
Alluding to the similarity in tweets and the timing of the tweets, Sawant said: “Akshay Kumar and Saina Nehwal posted a same word-to-word identical tweet. Suniel Shetty tagged a BJP leader as well and this completely exposed the role of the BJP. We suspect that the BJP is behind the whole thing. The party has a role in the BCCI as well and hence probably some cricketers also tweeted on the said directions,” Sawant said.
Sawant said if these personalities are under pressure from the BJP then they need to be given protection by the State.
On his part, NCP president Sharad Pawar had asked Tendulkar to exercise ‘caution’ while commenting on fields other than cricket.
In a related development, Maharashtra’s former Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis hit out at the Maha Vikas Aghadi Government for ordering investigations into the tweets by celebrities: “Disgusting & highly deplorable. Where is your Marathi Pride now? Where is your Maharashtra Dharma? We will never find such ‘ratnas’ (gems) in the entire nation who order probes against Bharat Ratnas who always stand strong in one voice for our nation,” Fadnavis tweeted.
However, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) president Raj Thackeray expressed his displeasure over the manner in which the Government had exposed legends like Lata and Sachin to vicious social media trolling by involving them unnecessarily in its efforts to counter international celebrities. He said the Government should have involved personalities like Akshay Kumar and not the icons.