What has been in the realm of suspicion, surmise and disbelief will now be probed to ascertain whether there was truth in it or not. There could be high voltage politics in the move to investigate the matter, but one way to get to the bottom of it is the Maharashtra government’s decision on February 8 to order an inquiry into the tweets by celebrities such as cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and singer Lata Mangeshkar. Their tweets were a sharp rejoinder to those by international celebrities like pop icon Rihanna, Swedish environment activist Greta Thunberg among others. The international celebs had incurred the ire of some Indian celebrities of the celluloid and sports world for expressing their solidarity with the farmers’ agitation against three contentious farm laws.
The Maharashtra government’s decision also comes in the midst of a war of attrition between the Central government and Twitter over the dissemination of information on the same issue. The government is mulling action against Twitter for not complying with the order, with speculation of slapping a seven-year jail term for some of its officials.
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The Maharashtra government has ordered the probe to find out whether the BJP-led NDA-government had coerced Tendulkar, Mangeshkar and other celebrities into joining the Twitter chorus against the foreign celebrities. These Indian names lent their support in line with what the Ministry of External Affairs had officially stated condemning some of the international tweets. Many of the tweets by celebrities such as Tendulkar, Mangeshkar, actor Akshay Kumar, filmmaker Karan Johar and the Indian cricket team head coach Ravi Shastri included the hashtag #IndiaAgainstPropaganda in response to the tweets from international personalities. The Maharashtra government’s probe will investigate whether these big names and others were pressured into tweeting by the central authorities. It is also likely to look into the reasons for identical tweets being posted by some of these people.
Announcing the probe, Home Minister of Maharashtra Anil Deshmukh said if a person opines on his or her own, it’s fine but there’s room for suspicion that the BJP could be behind this spate of tweets which are nothing but attempts to drum up support of the country’s iconic figures in defence of the government’s handling of the farmers’ agitation. For this reason he has given orders to the intelligence department to probe the Twitter response from India.
Maharashtra Congress chief Sachin Sawant at a press conference said the timing of the tweets by Tendulkar, badminton champion Saina Nehwal and actor Suniel Shetty looked dubious. The pattern followed in the tweets has given rise to the suspicion that there could be some communication between the celebrities and the Union government, he claimed.
Recently, Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar had asked Tendulkar to be more careful while speaking on farmers’ issues. “I would suggest to Sachin (Tendulkar) that he should be careful while speaking on the issues related to other fields,” Pawar said. In fact, Tendulkar’s tweet was the “most unkindest cut of all” for the farmers. The cricketing icon is adored by many for his genius irrespective of one’s political affiliation as he stays away from political controversies. But, his tweet was an indirect condemnation of the agitating farmers which appears most uncharacteristic of the cricketing maestro.
What strengthens the suspicion about the coercion charge is the BJP’s response to Maharashtra government’s decision to probe. Within hours of the announcement, former Chief Minister of the state Devendra Fadnavis questioned the state government’s sanity. Mounting a fierce attack, Fadnavis stated the state government should be ashamed of even using the term “probe” against Bharat Ratnas – Lata Mangeshkar and Sachin Tendulkar. “It now seems necessary to probe the mental state and stability of the ones who made such a demand,” Fadnavis said in a tweet. He has even invoked “Marathi Pride” to dissuade the government from the probe.
The state government asserts its intent is not to show any disrespect to the celebrities, but to find out if any pressure was put on them, in which case they need protection.
The question is if the BJP had no hand in the celebrities’ Twitter response, why is the party getting so worked up over the probe order. A sad fact of the internet revolution is that weaponisation of the media – social and mainstream – has become a lethal political tool to remain entrenched in power.
Looking at the list of Indian big names, it is evident that people like Karan Johar could easily have been coerced to tweet in favor of the Union government because of the pending drug abuse investigation of the Bombay film industry in the Sushant Singh Rajput case. Similarly, people like Sachin, Saina, Suneil or Lata would be easy meat if any Income Tax or Enforcement Directorate peon would have called them up and dictated the tweets along with the hashtags. The Maharashtra government’s probe result might help create a healthy atmosphere for the future in such matters.
