[ Her post prompted an
uproar in India as pro-government supporters trolled the singer, accusing her
of tweeting in exchange for money. In 2020, Rihanna’s net worth was reported to
be $600 million, and she was featured in a Forbes list of the richest
self-made women in the United
States.]
By Niha Masih
Farmers in India have been on the
streets for over two months protesting recent agricultural laws that they see
as a threat to their livelihood. On Tuesday, the demonstrators received backing
from Rihanna, whose support has given them even more exposure on the world
stage.
“Why aren’t we talking about
this?!” Rihanna
tweeted to her more than 100 million followers. She shared a link to a
CNN news article on the demonstrations with the hashtag #FarmersProtest.
Her post prompted an uproar in
India as pro-government supporters trolled the singer, accusing her of tweeting
in exchange for money. In 2020, Rihanna’s net worth was reported to be $600
million, and she was featured in a Forbes list of the richest self-made women in
the United States.
Many Indians thanked Rihanna for
bringing international attention to the issue. A Bollywood actor-singer
released a track in Punjabi dedicated to Rihanna, calling her a “pretty girl from Barbados.”
[Why
India’s farmers are in revolt in the middle of a pandemic]
For several months, tens of
thousands of farmers have sat on highways in the biting winter cold, blocking
roads leading into the national capital. A sprawling protest city has emerged
with a community kitchen, laundry services and portable toilets.
The protests, which had been
largely peaceful, took a violent turn on Jan. 26 with clashes between farmers
and the police in Delhi. A crackdown followed: Internet in the areas where
demonstrations are taking place was turned
off, roads were fortified with upturned nails, and ditches and concertina wires were laid out to
prevent farmers from entering the city. Many likened the measures to “warlike”
preparations.
Authorities have filed criminal
charges against dozens of protesters, farmer union leaders and activists for
the violence. In some states, authorities have opened cases against an
opposition politician and prominent editors of news channels and magazines for sedition for “misreporting” the incidents around the
death of a protester.
Rihanna’s tweet was followed by a
spate of tweets from other international figures in support of the farmer
protests. Environmental activist Greta
Thunberg said she stands in “solidarity” with them, while Vice
President Harris’s niece, Meena Harris, said “democracy
was under assault” in India.
Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.), a member
of the influential Foreign Affairs Committee, said the “right
to peaceful protest must always be respected.”
The Indian government fired back
with a Foreign Ministry statement saying celebrities should refrain from
the “temptation
of sensationalist social media hashtags and comments” without full
knowledge of the issue.
“We would like to emphasize that
these protests must be seen in the context of India’s democratic ethos and
polity, and the efforts of the government and the concerned farmer groups to
resolve the impasse,” the statement read.
Referring to the farmers’ storming
of the capital’s famous Red Fort monument on Jan. 26, the statement said that
only a very “small section” of farmers had “reservations” about the laws. The
statement was shared with the hashtags #IndiaTogether and
#IndiaAgainstPropaganda.
Indian celebrities also came out in
support of the government. A Bollywood actor responded
to Rihanna, calling her a “fool” and equating protesting farmers to
terrorists.
Farmers are afraid the new laws
will remove the safeguard of guaranteed prices for some crops and lead to their
exploitation at the hands of large corporations. The government has said the
laws are necessary reforms to liberalize the sector. Talks between the two
sides have failed to break the impasse.
Earlier in December, the protests
caused a diplomatic headache for the government after Canadian Prime
Minister Justin
Trudeau expressed concern over India’s handling of demonstrations.
India said the comments by Trudeau and other Canadian leaders were “unwarranted”
and “ill-informed.”
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