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OPINION February 05, 2021 | The Indian Eye 17

the rihanna tweet and

how we reacted

Views and opinions from the top commentators in Indian media

n a globally connected es against the Barbadians at
world we will have opinions our gates.
Ion everything from Donald The next time politicians
Trump to Black Lives Matter decide to use India’s cricketers
to the coup in Myanmar, and as extras in some nationalist
yes, the farmers’ protests in In- drama, the Nation won’t ask
dia. We are free to ignore those which of them tweeted; It will
opinions or rebut them but it’s ask which of them didn’t.”
pointless to go apoplectic about
them. mukul Kesavan,
The Telegraph
Rihanna is neither India’s
Enemy No. 1 nor is she some Battle for delhi
newly-minted patron saint of
rural distress but the over-the- The farmers’ movement
top reaction to her tweet has has now begun to erase these
sub-identities in favor of a larg-
certainly made the farmer issue er one – the farmer identity
a red-carpet issue. Even Vogue (which includes the landless
Magazine UK is now covering it. laborer, the artisan, even the
In the end it’s irrelevant what A group of protesters burn a poster of pop singer rihanna in Jammu
Rihanna thinks. The real ques- on Thursday. (ANI) village shopkeeper). There will
tion is not how dare Rihanna be only one identity now, one
concern and one demand. With
(or whoever) tweet about Indi- nothing to divide, the Great
an farmers. The bigger question tionalist terrain, which is always sports and politics Divider will not be able to rule:
is why so many of our cultural the government’s preferred “When sports organizations it was a lesson the British had
icons (with the exception of a battleground. But cricketers are captured by politicians, the finally learnt, and the BJP will
handful like Priyanka Chopra, tweeting for unity will not win players regulated by them run
Sonakshi Sinha, Sonam Kapoor the absurd battle against three the risk of becoming clients of now learn it the hard way.
and South Indian stars like young women overseas. So, it is the netas who happen to run The game has changed, but
Prakash Raj and Vishal) had to the government that now risks the nation state at the time. the farmers have made it clear
that the rules have not – winner
wait for the likes of Rihanna to being portrayed as the intransi- The principle of sporting takes all.
tweet before they ventured to gent party. autonomy, the idea of a neces- This rule had been made by
voice an opinion, whether sup- “If it wants to regain the ini- sary distance between the State an arrogant and over-reaching
porting or opposing, on an issue tiative, it must regain credibili- and its sportsmen, might have
that is, as one Bollywood celeb- ty, just as the Manmohan Singh been a liberal conceit but it was government and it may just
rity put it in his #IndiaTogether government needed to do in an enabling fiction. In its ab- come back to bite it.
The nails on the road at
tweet, about farmers aka “the 2011-12 on corruption. And not sence, we had Dhoni and Kohli Ghazipur could well be the
backbone of India.” just with farmers but also with wooing the nation in military nails in the BJP’s coffin. The
sandip roy, other sections of the citizenry fatigue caps, performing patri-
The Times of India who have come to believe that otism. pampered and indifferent up-
those ruling in Delhi no longer Once cricketers cross that per middle classes of Delhi can
farmers movement represent them. That means line, once they go from playing now live-in peace – the bat-
“The second, more serious the government must look for for the country to role-playing tle has been taken away from
them, they no longer count.
accusation put out by the gov- broader acceptance of its laws for the Nation, there is no go-
ernment is that the movement even if it can enact them with- ing back. They will be asked avay shukla,
The Wire
has been penetrated by sepa- out difficulty, since it now con- to reprise those roles. Having
ratist elements, even as journal- trols both houses of Parliament. played at being soldiers, they
ists face seemingly coordinated This larger national narrative is will, for instance, be conscript- Every week, we look at what
the top commentators in the
accusations of sedition. This what needs addressing.” ed by their political patrons to Indian media are talking about
takes the debate away from the t n ninan, defend the nation against Ri- and bring to you a slice of their
specifics of the farm laws to na- The Print hanna, to man Twitter’s trench- opinions and comments

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