As anyone who has sung in a choir well knows, a key factor enhancing the power of massed voices is the dynamics: a good conductor knows whe...
As anyone who has sung in a choir well knows, a key factor enhancing the power of massed voices is the dynamics: a good conductor knows when to keep the singers soft and when exactly to raise them up fortississimo to a stirring crescendo.
By ranging playback singer Lata Mangeshkar against the global pop star Rihanna in its propaganda battle against India’s protesting farmers, the Modi government has hit a painfully dischordant note.
It all began on Tuesday night, with the Barbados-born Rihanna tweeting out a CNN article about the internet cuts effected in several parts of Haryana in an attempt to disrupt the swelling protests by farmers against three new agricuture laws that they believe will undermine their livelihood.
“Why aren’t we talking about this?!” the musician asked.
why aren’t we talking about this?! #FarmersProtest https://t.co/obmIlXhK9S
— Rihanna (@rihanna) February 2, 2021
She was immediately greeted by a wall of misogynistic, racist responses on Twitter. Some spoke approvingly of the battering her former boyfriend Chris Brown had inflicted on her in 2009 and rued that the fact that he wasn’t around to “keep her in line” now.
Before long, other Western celebrities tweeted about the farmers’ protests, notably the teenage climate change campaigner Greta Thunberg and porn performer Mia Khalifa.
Astonishingly, by mid-morning Wednesday, India’s Ministry of External Affairs issued a statement...
