Soon after Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh ordered an inquiry into Tweets by Indian celebrities on farmers' protest, BJP Maharashtra state leader Ashish Shelar says he condemns the probe. Taking to Twitter the BJP neta said that Congress wants to investigate Sachin Tendulkar and Lata didi for supporting India, which is shameful.
He said greed of power has taken over Sena, so they are unable to think rationally.
“I doubt if the Maharashtra Home Minister thinks before speaking. Sachin Tendulkar & Lata Mangeshkar are not just celebrities, they're Bharat Ratna recipients. We condemn any inquiry into their chats. We want to ask Uddhav Thackeray ji, is he in sound mind?”: said BJP leader Ashish Shelar.
Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Devendra Fadnavis also lashed out at the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), calling the probe against Sachin and Lata Mangeshkar as "disgusting & highly deplorable".
Fadnavis asked Uddhave Thackeray, "Where is your Marathi Pride now? Where is your Maharashtra Dharma? We will never find such ‘ratnas’ (gems) in the entire Nation who order probes against BharatRatnas who always stand strong in one voice for our Nation," he said.
Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Monday has ordered an inquiry into Tweets by Indian celebrities on farmers' protest citing they are all “similar” and had come in the same “time '' raises suspicion, thus intelligence will investigate into the background of the Tweets.
Last week, several Bollywood celebrities and sports persons including Akshay Kumar, lata Mangeshkar, Sachin Tendulkar, Suniel Shetty, Virat Kohli, Ajay Devgan, among others came in support of the government via social media, using hashtags #IndiaagAgainstpropaganda #IndiaTogether in counter-response to the tweets by international celebrities like Rihanna and Greta Thunberg who extended their support to the farmers.
After the stir on social media, Congress leader Sachin Sawant has ordered an investigation to find out whether the celebrities Tweeted under some pressure by the Modi government or the celebrities just wanted to support the centre on the controversial Farm Laws. Sawant today had a meeting with Deshmukh relating to the same.
"Reactions are coming in from across celebrities across the world. Celebrities like Rihanna also responded. Following that renowned person from their field - Sachin Tendulkar, Lata Ji, Akshay Kumar have tweeted. But you have a question about the timing of the tweets and if it was done due to pressure, the tweet by Akshay Kumar and Saina Nehwal looks similar," said Anil Deshmukh.
Maharashtra Congress spokesperson and the complainant Sachin Sawant said," Stars like Sachin Tendulkar or Lata Mangeshkar never even expressed grief on anybody's death but suddenly started tweeting in support of the government. We are not questioning anybody's freedom of expression but the pattern of tweets suggests that the Modi government even pressurized these Bharat Ratnas."
Raj Thackeray on Sunday said that the government should not have exposed the celebrities in their campaign.