WEB DESK
The Maharashtra government will probe celebrities, including Bharat Ratnas Sachin Tendulkar and singer Lata Mangeshkar, who had tweeted in support of the Centre on farm laws.
The issue came a day after the Congress demanded a probe by the police into the tweets to find out if the celebrities were pressure by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to take to social media in support of the Centre. State Congress’s general secretary and spokesperson Sachin Sawant met state home minister Anil Deshmukh with the demand of the probe.
Sawant was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times that there was a “similar pattern behind these tweets by the celebrities including Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty, sportspersons Sachin Tendulkar, Saina Nehwal. The contents of the tweets by Nehwal and Kumar are same while Shetty had tagged a BJP leader. This shows that there was a communication between the celebrities and the ruling party leaders. It needs to be investigated if there was any pressure from the BJP on these national heroes for such advocacy on the social media. If so, these celebrities need to be given more protection”.
Deshmukh said: “Our state intelligence department will enquire if the tweets were sent in a synchronised manner. The timing of all the tweets, and the coordinated manner in which they were sent out indicates a line of action and that this was planned”. He also singled out the tweet of Suniel Shetty, who he said had tagged a BJP member in his post.