What would the 70-odd farmers who died braving rain, bone-chilling cold on Delhi roads who may have considered Sachin Tendulkar a role model be thinking now? The ‘God’ of cricket, who was conferred the Bharat Ratna, seems to have proved that he is nothing more than a “sarkari celeb.”
His Twitter statement on Wednesday urging those “foreigners” to keep off farmers protest hasn’t gone down too well.
Since Tendulkar was conferred the highest civilian award in 2014, he has been the mascot of the Mumbai India IPL team, which is owned by Reliance Industries. The Mukesh Ambani-led company now finds itself in the center of the contentious farm laws along with the Adani Group.
Since his cricket career which began in 1989, why has the ‘God of cricket’ found his voice now on social and political issues 32 years hence?
During his stint as Rajya Sabha MP, the cricketer held the ignominious record of 7.3% attendance in Parliament. As per Parliament records, Tendulkar attended just 29 of the nearly 400 Parliament sessions, asked just 22 questions and introduced no bills. The fiver year stint earned him nearly Rs 1 crore (Rs 86.23 lakh to be precise).
What is more intriguing is Tendulkar’s timing of the tweet, it took a foreign pop singer, foreign climate and an international porn actor to wake up the former Test cricketer and ex-MP to back the government?
While critics have panned Tendulkar for his message, Right-wing trolls have welcomed his “awakening.” Many said the “God has spoken,” while others saw it as the cricketer’s coming of age. Whatever the reason may be, it seems that the “Little Master” is following the “Master’s” call.