On Saturday, NCP leader Sharad Pawar advised cricket hero Sachin Tendulkar to “exercise caution while speaking about any other field”. Sachin tweeted earlier last week as one of a celebrity-fueled blowback on pop star Rihanna and her six-word post over Twitter on the protests of farmers.
Several days after Tendulkar entered a lengthy list of Indian actors, sportsmen, and leaders tweeting about unity and farmers, Mr. Pawar’s statement came. It was a few days after Tendulkar joined the list triggered by Rihanna’s tweet. It already has generated a flood of headlines around the world and support.
More About Tweet By Sachin And Twitter War:
“Many people have reacted sharply to the stand by them (Indian celebrities). I would advise Sachin to exercise caution while speaking about any other field,” Mr. Pawar was quoted by an article.
“Agitators are farmers who feed our country… not right to call them Khalistanis or terrorists”. Mr. Pawar, who was the Minister of Agriculture in the UPA government headed by Congress, said.
The statement was answered with a short reply from MP Meenakshi Lekhi of the BJP.
“How I feel his advice was made available to Mia Khalifa, Rihanna, and Greta Thunberg! I was also thinking what about knowing and yet not speaking, since he has been a former Agriculture Minister, worked with APMCs (and) issued letters in favor of reforms…” she tweeted.
On February 3, Indian celebrities, including former cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and playback singer Lata Mangeshkar, took to Twitter. This happened after support for the farmers’ protests was voiced by global celebrities such as pop singer Rihanna and climate change activist Greta Thunberg.
There were common words and phrases in most of the tweets by Indian celebrities.
A study conducted said that Indian celebrities’ tweets came in three batches: morning tweeting actors, afternoon cricketers, and evening mixed party actors.
“In general, sportspersons [were] more likely to lean towards the government position”. Joyojeet Pal, one of the researchers said in a tweet. “Cricketers [were] almost uniformly on the government side or neutral. Two major sportspersons who came out against [the trend] were [badminton player] Jwala Gutta and [cricketer] Irfan Pathan.”
However, with one of the biggest fanbases in India, a tweet by Sachin blew Twitter. It impacted many of the people and hence, Mr. Pawar is putting his head on the matter.