Maha plans probe into celebs’ tweets on farm stir

The Maharashtra government will order an investigation of tweets by Indian celebrities last week in response to social media posts by musician Rihanna and climate change activist Greta Thunberg in support of the farmers’ protest on Delhi’s borders to find out whether they had been pressured by the Bharatiya Janata Party to post pro-government messages, state home minister Anil Deshmukh

MUMBAI:

said on Monday.

Deshumukh held out the assurance to a Congress delegation led by Maharashtra Congress general secretary and spokesperson Sachin Sawant, which met him by video link on Monday.

The Maharashtra Congress has demanded a probe by the police over the tweets posted by celebrities in response to global criticism of the central government’s handling of the farmers’ protest. The party sought an investigation to check if the celebrities were pressured by the BJP to take to social media in support of the Centre.

“The timing and pattern of the tweets need to be investigated as the Narendra Modi government is known for armtwisting people who speak against them... Here it needs to be verified if there was any pressure on the celebrities to tweet in support of the government. The intelligence department of Maharashtra police will probe this,” said Deshmukh.

Sawant had earlier pointed out a similarity between the tweets posted by various Indian celebrities. “There is a similar pattern in these tweets by celebrities, including Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty, and sportspersons Sachin Tendulkar and Saina Nehwal. This shows that there was some communication between the celebrities and the ruling party leaders. There needs to be an investigation to check if these national heroes were pressured by the BJP for such advocacy on social media. If so, these celebrities need to be given more protection,” Sawant said.

Celebrities, including Tendulkar, playback singer Lata Mangeshkar and a host of Bollywood actors took to Twitter on February 3 after Rihanna and Thunberg expressed support for the farmers’ protest.

Former chief minister and leader of the opposition in the state assembly Devendra Fadnavis slammed the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government, which is made up of the Shiv Sena, the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party, describing the move as deplorable.