Farmer protests: Congress minister urges inquiry into alleged misuse of celebrities by Centre

Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Monday was asked by senior Maharashtra Congress party members to inquire into the alleged misuse of celebrities by the Central Government in the farmers’ protest.

Deshmukh has assured them that lawful action will be taken and investigations would be carried out by state intelligence agencies.

General Secretary and spokesperson of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress committee, Sachin Sawant, on an online platform, asked Deshmukh to look into the matter. However, in the evening, Sawant clarified that its demand was for an inquiry against the BJP and not Indian celebrities.

In the video shared with the media, Sawant said the farmers' agitation was happening at a national level. However, the Central Government’s attitude towards the farmers was hostile. It was anti-democratic in nature. The barricades used, with nails in them, were very disturbing. The whole world was watching these developments and it had created a negative public opinion against the Modi Government. International celebrities were also watching and tweeting their support to the farmers, he said.

He said that international pop star Rihanna had supported the protests in a personal capacity, but the Modi Government took cognisance of such a matter. Usually a government does not take note of personal tweets. But a propaganda was created that such actions were affecting Indian national unity.

If the timing, pattern and content of the tweets are analysed, it appears that Indian celebrities were forced to tweet their responses. It appears that the BJP is applying pressure on the celebrities so that they tweet in favour of the government. Certain words have been found, which are common to all the celebrity tweets. These celebrities had never taken a stand on the farmers’ issues in the past, Sawant said

Deshmukh said the agitation, which was peaceful till January 25, changed after that and attempts were made to defame the farmers. A number of Indian celebrities had also tweeted. Therefore, the claims of the Congress party would be investigated by the state intelligence agencies.

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