TWEETING IT WHOSE WAY? OF RIHANNA AND THE LITTLE MASTER ON FARM BILLS

The admiration for Sachin Tendulkar, who has millions of fans both in India and abroad, is not just about his stupendous achievements on the pitch but also for his commendable conduct off the pitch.

- T S HAOKIP

Shouldering the hopes of more than a billion people for many years, the little master broke a plethora of cricketing records and etched his name amongst one of the greatest cricketers of all time. Never someone, who would easily be bowed down by pressures from his sporting opponents, Sachin maintained that resilience with his non-partisan stance on controversial issues- political and apolitical and remained nonaligned until that day- the 3rd of February 2021. He tweeted something that baffled thousands of his fans. Many were not only shocked but hurt.

The farm bills since their introduction and subsequent passage in September 2020 have attracted a mixed response from various groups of people. While lakhs of farmers have been voicing their strong reservations on the bills and are staging a protest at the Border of the National capital for months now, the Government on the other hand is hell-bent on dashing ahead with the bills. As news of farmers having no option but to resort to destroying their crops as they were offered only Rs. 1/- per kg. by corporates do the rounds, strengthening the demand for Minimum Support Price of their agricultural produce, the Government maintained its stance that fears on the discontinuation of MSP are baseless. The farmers though are wary of the absence of any mechanism for procurement of agricultural produce at MSP in the farm bills.