Sharad Pawar advises Sachin Tendulkar to exercise caution

NCP chief Sharad Pawar advised Bharat Ratna awardee and former international cricketer Sachin Tendulkar to be cautious, while commenting on issues outside his field

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday advised Bharat Ratna awardee and former international cricketer Sachin Tendulkar to be cautious while commenting on issues outside his field. He also said that the common people have fiercely reacted to the stance adopted by Indian celebrities to counter tweets from foreign celebrities on the farmers’ agitation.

Sharad Pawar

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) also took on the Centre for dragging Bharat Ratna awardees Lata Mangeshkar and Tendulkar into its campaign to counter tweets from celebrities such as singer Rihanna. He slammed the Centre, saying that the issue was with the government’s policy and not a national issue to use legends to garner support. “They (Indian celebrities) have taken a stand but the common people have fiercely reacted to the position taken by them. I would also advise Tendulkar to exercise caution while speaking about any other field,” Pawar said.

Thackeray, who was speaking to reporters, said that the union government should have not exposed Mangeshkar and Tendulkar to social media trolling. “The government should not have asked Sachin Tendulkar and Lata Mangeshkar to tweet and put their reputation at stake. This is an issue of the government’s policy and not of the country’s like some threat from China or Pakistan. Now they have to face the wrath of social media trolling.”

“The government should have limited its use of celebrities in its campaign to actors such as Akshay Kumar,” he remarked.

He further said, “They (Tendulkar and Mangeshkar) are legends in their fields, and they are very simple people. They should not have been asked to tweet with the same hashtag. They tweeted what the government asked them to tweet, and now they are at the receiving end.”

Thackeray also slammed the Centre for issuing clarification to Rihanna’s tweet supporting the farmers’ stir.

Reacting to comments from foreign celebrities on farmers’ protest, the former union agriculture minister also said that farmers are protesting despite all the odds since the last over two months and people were sympathetic towards them in the country. “Now, similar views are expressed abroad for the farmers, which is not good for the country. The government must take them seriously,” he suggested. Linking these reactions over farmers’ protests with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s support to the candidature of Donald Trump as Presidential candidate for the second term, he said, “I remember when the Prime Minister was on a US tour, he declared that Trump will be elected for a second term and a few sections have appreciated him. Today, people from abroad are also reacting the same way because of the same reason,” he said, blaming Modi for interfering in the internal matter of the United States.