Top Indian football players speak out in favour of farmers’ protests

In sharp contrast to the ‘collusive tweeting” that several cricketers seem to have indulged in to toe the government’s official line that tweets in support of the farmers’ protests by pop singer Rihanna and climate activist Greta Thunberg were ‘propaganda’ and amounted to interference in India’s ‘internal affairs’, several footballers have come out in support of the farmers’ protests.

Former Bengaluru FC and Kerala Blasters midfielder Darren Caldeira took to Twitter to take a dig at allegations floating on social media that pop singer Rihanna was ‘paid’ for her tweet which quoted a CNN report decrying the internet ban at farmers’ protest sites in Delhi.

“Students are paid. Protestors are paid. Farmers are paid. Now, Rihanna is paid as well. You’d require quite the budget for her. She is worth USD 600 mil according to Forbes. Just saying. #FarmersProtest,” Darren wrote.

This was retweeted by Farukh Choudhary, who currently plays in the Indian team.

Anirudh Thapa, who is an Indian national team player and Chennaiyin FC’s midfielder retweeted Congress MP Shashi Tharoor’s tweet with the message “Let’s be democratic again”.

Karanjit Singh, Deepak Tangri and Germanpreet Singh who belong to the Chennaiyin team were also vocal in their support to the farmers.

Michael Soosairaj, an Indian professional footballer and ATK Mohun Bagan’s midfielder also lent his voice in support of the farmers.

Kerala Blasters player Ayush Adhikari tweeted:

Several users took to Twitter to express appreciation at the stand taken by the footballers: