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On Wednesday, singer Rihanna posted an article from the CNN calling on people to pay more attention to peasant protests in India. The article explained how the Indian government had blocked Internet access for a few days in various areas of the capital New Delhi, where hundreds of thousands of farmers have camped for more than two months to protest against the introduction of three laws on liberalization. . of agricultural trade.
Rihanna’s comment on the article was “why aren’t we talking about this?” The simple tweet provoked an almost immediate reaction from the Indian government, led by the nationalist Narendra Modi, and his supporters, in a way that seemed quite coordinated and with unusual strength.
Why aren’t we talking about this ?! #FarmersProtest https://t.co/obmIlXhK9S
– Rihanna (@rihanna) February 2, 2021
Rihanna’s tweet, who has more than 100 million followers on Twitter, was discussed and shared a lot, even by other famous people in different fields. Activist Greta Thunberg It has increased the same article, expressing “solidarity with peasant protests in India”; Granddaughter of Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris, Meena Harris, a very active advocate for gender equality and with a large following, continued throughout the day to emphasize each other.
Before long, the Indian Foreign Ministry issued a statement with an unusual stance “on the recent comments by foreign individuals and entities on the peasant protests.” Rihanna or others involved are never directly mentioned, but there is talk of “interest groups” who have tried to mobilize “international support against India” and are invited not to give in to the “sensational temptation of hashtags and comments on social media” . network, especially when used by celebrities or other people.
Even Indian Interior Minister Amit Shah shared the statement and said that “propaganda” cannot decide the fate of India, “only progress can.” Along with the press release, the hashtags #IndiaAgainstPropaganda (India against propaganda) and #IndiaTogether (India together) were launched.
Despite the government’s calls not to trust celebrities and avoid sensationalism on social media, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has begun to share on his Twitter profile a series of positions taken by famous Indians in favor of the government . In fact, many singers, actors, cricketers and other celebrities in India have used the two hashtags in the statement to highlight efforts made by the government towards farmers or, in some cases, to criticize the protests: Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut has responded to Rihanna calling the protesters “terrorists trying to divide India.”
The interventions of the famous Indians, however, seemed too coordinated, and many considered them suspicious, as if they themselves were guided by a programmatic propaganda work: in some cases the texts of the comments they were even identical and in general the same words were used, for example, to say that the government was looking for a “friendly solution”, as the Washington Post Ayyub frog |
Pimps pic.twitter.com/mikz26tl7f
– Rana Ayyub (@RanaAyyub) February 4, 2021
Despite the declared desire to reach an agreement, at the moment it seems difficult for farmers to accept compromises, and after recent developments with blocking Internet access to limit communication, the situation remains quite tense.
Peasant protests in India started in September 2020, after the Narendra Modi government introduced three laws on liberalizing agricultural trade and without prior consultation with farms. At the end of November a strike was called that apparently added 250 million workers in several states of India, a country where farmers make up almost half of the entire population, about 650 million.
Hundreds of thousands of people had marched into the capital, traveling in tractors, on foot or by bicycle, to demand that the laws be repealed. Since that day, many protesters have been sleeping and living in hundreds of trailers attached to tractors lined up for several kilometers, on three major highways connecting Delhi, the capital’s territory, with neighboring states.
On January 12, the Supreme Court of India suspended the entry into force of the controversial laws, but the peasants wanted the final repeal. They also rejected the temporary solution. An important moment for the protests was on January 26, India’s Republic Day day, when the thousands of peasants camped around Delhi staged a demonstration at the same time as the annual Republic Day parade. There were clashes and many injuries, both among the peasants and the police, and at least one of the peasants died.
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