'At least be original': Are Somdev, Tiwary, Pathan targeting sports stars' unity tweets?

For once, Sachin Tendulkar seems to have landed on the wrong end of popularity index as his tweet calling for a 'united India' amid the farm law crisis, invited criticism from several quarters. The master blaster was, however, not alone. He was part of a league of celebrities, including contemporaries like Anil Kumble and Bollywood celebrities like Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgn, who all gave a call against external forces trying to interfere in "India's internal matters".

A day later, tweets by tennis star Somdev Devvarman and Bengal cricketer Manoj Tiwary caught the netizens' attention. "At least be original," tweeted Devvarman, while Tiwary had a slightly sarcastic tweet that read: "When I was a kid, I never saw a puppet show. It took me 35 years to see one." However, both the sports personalities refrained from addressing the issue directly. 

But netizens think both the tweets were aimed at other celebrated tweets calling for unity that more or less had the same template and used the hashtags #IndiaTogether and #IndiaAgainstPropaganda. 

As many from the Indian cricketing fraternity rallied behind the likes of Tendulkar and skipper Virat Kohli calling for an "amicable solution" to the farmers' crisis, a few voices tried to take a different stance. And they have been at the receiving end of trolls for voicing their thoughts. 

Sunrisers Hyderabad player Sandeep Sharma tweeted in support of Rihanna after the international pop icon received flak on social media for tweeting about the ongoing farmers’ protest in India. "By this logic, no one should care about each other because every situation is someone's internal affair," Sharma's now-deleted tweet read. 

"When George Floyd was brutally murdered in the USA by a policeman,our country rightly expressed our grief," former Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan on Thursday tweeted using the hashtag #justsaying.

Another cricketer with a different opinion seems to be KingsXI Punjab's Mandeep Singh who has retweeted Rihanna and Lilly Singh's tweets in support of the protesting farmers. 

Veteran spinner from Punjab Harbhajan Singh also seems to have silently backed the farmers. The "Turbanator" on Wednesday shared a photo on his Instagram Story in support of the farmers. Shubhman Gill, also from Punjab—the boiling pot of the current farmers' strike—was among the first cricketers to support the farmers' protest, as early as September. The young prodigy has also changed his Instagram profile picture, showing solidarity toward the farmers' cause.