The ongoing farmer protest in India has intensified even further with international voices raising some concerns. The issue really blew up on February 4 when pop singer Rihanna and climate activist Greta Thunberg shared an article about the farmer protest. While Rihanna captioned "Are we talking about this?", Greta Thunberg stated she was in solidarity with the farmers but apparently, she released a toolkit that outlined how to go about the protests. In response to the outrage, many Bollywood celebs and Indian cricketers tweeted a peculiarly familiar tweet on #IndiaAgainstPropoganda and said foreigners need not meddle in the internal affairs of India. The MEA (Ministry of External Affairs) also issued a statement urging Rihanna and Greta Thunberg to tweet factually.
While many Indian cricketers and Bollywood celebs tweeted their solidarity with the country and asked outsiders to not 'poke their nose' in India's internal matter, former cricketer Irfan Pathan has had a different line of thinking. In his recent tweet, he stated, "When George Floyd was brutally murdered in the USA by a policeman, our country rightly expressed our grief. #justsaying." This was an indirect dig at people who tweeted the same tweet and it was also on those people who said no outsider has the right to say a thing about India's internal matter. The tweet has been retweeted 25K times and liked 83K times while close to 7000 comments have been registered.
Irfan Pathan active on issues
During the student protests in Jamia at the start of January 2020, Irfan Pathan was the only cricketer who was in solidarity with the students. During the ongoing farm protests, India Under-19 star and opener in the Indian cricket team Shubman Gill and his family had voiced their concern on the issue in December. Recently, Sandeep Sharma, the Sunrisers Hyderabad bowler had tweeted RIP Logic in response to similar tweets but he had to delete it.
Former India cricketer and left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha has responded to the tweet of Rihanna and has blasted the Barbados-born pop singer for 'poking her nose' in an internal matter. "My country is proud of our farmers and knows how important they are, I trust it will be addressed soon. We don’t need an outsider poking her nose in our internal matters!," Pragyan Ojha tweeted to Rihanna.
The Union Home Affairs Ministry on Monday extended temporarily suspension of internet services till February 2 at Delhi's -- Singhu, Ghazipur, and Tikri borders to maintain law and order amid the farmers' protest against the newly-enacted farm laws. According to the Home Ministry order, "In exercise of powers conferred under sub-rule 1 of Rule 2 of the Temporary Suspension of Telecom Services (Public Emergency or Public Safety Rules 2017), and in the interest of maintaining public safety and averting public emergency, it is necessary and expedient to order the temporary suspension of Internet services in Singhu, Ghazipur and Tikri and their adjoining areas in the National Capital Territory from 11 pm on January 31 to 11 pm on February 2." On Monday, the police officials also fenced the Delhi border near Ghazipur with barbed wires to stop the protesting farmers from entering the national capital from Uttar Pradesh. The police also deployed heavy security at the Ghazipur protest site.
Apart from Pragyan Ojha, Bollywood star Kangana Ranaut reacted sharply to Rihanna's tweet. Kangana wrote, "No one is talking about it because they are not farmers they are terrorists who are trying to divide India so that China can take over our vulnerable broken nation and make it a Chinese colony much like the USA... Sit down you fool, we are not selling our nation like you dummies (sic)." There was support as well for Rihanna, with Diljit Dosanjh expressed gratitude in the most subtle way, by taking to his Instagram story and sharing a photo of Rihanna with the song 'Run This Town' by Jay Z playing in the backdrop.
