It has become quite fashionable for the liberal aandolan-jeevis to criticize our celebrities and sportspersons over their supposed silence on national issues. I was recently talking to one of my friends, Pawan Singh, based in Punjab about the farmer protests to enquire if everything was fine with him and his family. Coming from one of the millions of “misled” farmer families, Pawan sounded quite worried about the impact of the 3 farm laws recently passed by the Modi government in the “interests of farmers”. He also seemed agitated (like always Modiji was quite right about these aandolan-jeevis. They are always in a permanent state of agitation!) with what he called “orchestrated tweets” by famous Bollywood celebrities, current and former cricketers. Particularly, his ire was directed at Sachin’s tweet which spoke about sovereignty, external forces being spectators and Indians deciding for India. Bollywood celebrities weren’t spared either for their stand against external forces threatening India’s unity with tweets in support of the farmer protests. Just because these external forces live in democratic societies which allow protests doesn’t mean the same freedoms apply here! We don’t need any lectures from the west on democracy. We are proud to be better than Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, China, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and North Korea on our democratic and human rights record.
Naturally, I was shocked to hear criticism of the “God of cricket”. After all his twitter bio describes him simply as Proud Indian. Moreover, this man always played with an insignia of the Indian flag on his helmet! He won countless matches for India on the cricket field – a patriotic act no less than what all of India’s farmers have together achieved in their fields or the nationalism of the “border pe khada jawaan”. Pawan however wasn’t impressed. “What does a billionaire cricketer who has never taken a stand on any relevant issues know about the farm laws and their impact on the lives of peasants and farmers?”, he said. “After all he earns big money from corporate advertisements, sponsorships and league contracts from some of the biggest corporates in the world.”, he rambled on like a JNUwallah steeped in anti-development rhetoric.
Upon sensing a hint of jealousy in his criticism I jumped in the overcrowded queue of IT cell army, bhakts, patriotic Indians and NRIs to defend Sachin. “Don’t grudge him all of his hard-earned money for being the best in a sport like cricket which has such a huge fan-following in India.” “Think of all the joy he has brought to millions of Indians for all the victories achieved on the cricket field. The 2011 World Cup. Our unbeaten track record in World Cups against Pakistan.” Surely, there can be no greater joy on or off the cricket field for an Indian than a victory over Pakistan I thought to myself.
Alas, this wasn’t enough to convince aandolan-jeevi Pawan.
Pawan: “He may have played a huge role in some of the major victories of the Indian cricket team in the last two decades. He was also a great batsman. That doesn’t make him an expert in other matters. Has he ever taken a meaningful stand on social issues or issues of national importance during or after his playing days? Has he ever spoken on farmer suicides, communalism, bigotry, rising inequality or unemployment?”
I could now sense a strong influence of urban-naxalism in his voice. A mindset which can only focus on negatives instead of the positives like the increasing ability of Indians to pay higher petrol and diesel prices (barring few anti-national elements none of the patriotic citizens have protested rising petrol-diesel prices which currently are at an all-time high and have crossed even Advaniji’s age!). These leftists will never celebrate the brilliance of a once in a century atmanirbhar 2021 budget which offset the reduced taxes on corporates by levying additional agriculture infrastructure cess or allows FDI (not the foreign destructive ideology acronym but the original one) in insurance sector to 74% in line with the theme of atmanirbharta for all (including foreign corporations).
“Look at the celebrities in the West. Muhammad Ali, Jesse Owens, Matt Damon, Leonardo Dicaprio or Sacha Baron Cohen to name a few. Forget taking a stand on social issues, has ever given back to the game in any form by way of creating coaching institutes for the underprivileged.”
“That’s not fair, I said.” Remember, he has donated lakhs of rupees for flood relief or COVID relief. He even supports education for slum children and most importantly he even contributed his entire Rajya Sabha salary and allowances worth Rs 90 lakhs to the PM Relief fund!” He has also sanctioned crores of rupees for development works from his MP fund. He has auctioned his bat, pads, gloves and other cricket gear to raise funds for a noble cause, I rambled on.
Unimpressed with these details of Sachin’s humane intervention to help the needy, Pawan sarcastically said – “Yeah. He donates millions in charity and that is why he seeks tax exemptions worth 1.5 crore for an imported Ferrari or a road tax exemption to drive it”, referring to the infamous controversy surrounding the tax exemption request by Sachin for an imported Ferrari. I realized there was no point in arguing with Pawan who now sounded like a jholawallah.
“I am sure you have an issue with Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgn taking a stand in favour of national unity on twitter”. “We cannot allow the Rihanna’s and Greta Thunberg’s to dictate our twitter trends”, I added. Standing for the nation does not mean you should be talking about the masses and societal issues only. Pawan sarcastically said – “Right. Nation does not have to be about people. Maybe the next time someone should run another campaign – #IndiansAgainstStupidity”.
Unable to make headway in the discussion, I hung up the phone and went back to my Acche din routine.
This post was subsequently published on – https://www.alignindia.in/defending-indian-celebrities-twitter-patriotism/
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