It took a tweet by pop star Rihanna for prominent personalities from the Hindi film industry and the Indian male cricket world to talk abo...
It took a tweet by pop star Rihanna for prominent personalities from the Hindi film industry and the Indian male cricket world to talk about the farmers’ protests. Mind you, none of these tweets highlighted the five-month-long agitation by the farmers or questioned the violence on January 26 and the murkiness around it or condemned farmers being branded “terrorists”.
All that these tweets contained was a follow-up hashtag of #IndiaTogether after India’s Ministry of External Affairs released an unprecedented press release with a similar hashtag as a rebuttal to questions raised by several international personalities.
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As a fan of Indian men’s cricket, it is disturbing to see the most prominent names toe the government line and wave the flag of patriotism. The same feelings do not erupt for people from the Hindi film industry because they have long pushed government propaganda. Besides, unlike the cricketers, they are not the role models the nation looks up to.
As a consequence, this sudden barrage of #IndiaTogether tweets dipped in the colours of nationalism raises critical questions about the idea of cricketers as role models and about cricket patriotism in India.
India’s sovereignty cannot be compromised. External forces can be spectators...
