By Pranav Patel. Originally published by author, 15 February 2021
It has become quite fashionable for liberal Andolanjeevis to criticize our celebrities and sportspersons over their 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 right about these Andolanjeevis: they are in a permanent state of agitation!) with what he called “orchestrated tweets” by famous Bollywood celebrities, current and former cricketers. His ire was particularly 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. Just because these external forces live in democratic societies that 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 the democratic and human rights fronts.
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 the 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 achieved in their fields or the nationalism of the “border pe khada jawan“. Pawan however wasn’t impressed. “What does a billionaire cricketer who has never taken a stand on any relevant issue 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 into 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 through 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 Andolanjeevi Pawan.
He retorted “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 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 that only focuses on negatives instead of the positives like the increasing ability of Indians to pay higher petrol and diesel prices (barring a few anti-national elements, no patriotic citizens have protested against fuel prices currently at an all-time high, even crossing Advaniji’s age!). These leftists will never celebrate the brilliance of a once in a century Atmanirbhar budget which offset the reduced corporate taxes by levying an agriculture infrastructure cess or allowed 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 Sachin ever given back to the game, for example by creating coaching institutes for the underprivileged?”
“That’s not fair” I said. “Remember, he has donated lakhs of rupees for flood or COVID relief. He even supports education for slum children and 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 instances of Sachin’s humane intervention to help the needy, Pawan sarcastically said “Yeah. He donates millions in charity and then seeks tax exemptions worth 1.5 crore for an imported Ferrari or road tax exemption to drive it”, referring to an infamous controversy. 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 Rihannas and the Thunbergs to dictate our twitter trends”, I said. “Standing for the nation does not mean you should be talking about the masses and societal issues only.” Pawan sarcastically replied “Right. The 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 Acchhe Din routine.
Disclaimer :The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. AlignIndia does not take any responsibility for the content of the article.
(Pranav Patel is an alumnus of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and blogs at pranav84blog.wordpress.com)