Recent comments by pop singer Rihanna and teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg on the ongoing farmers’ protests in India spurred the government to launch an expansive counter-narrative campaign. Seeking to portray these comments as misinformed “propaganda” and foreign meddling in India’s internal affairs, the government’s IT cell soon disseminated the hashtags #IndiaTogether and #IndiaAgainstPropaganda. The virality of these hashtags was helped in no small part by the acquiescence of India’s cricketers, who boast vast influence and millions of followers in a country where they are often revered as gods. Whether or not they were pressured or paid to parrot the government’s prepared statements is anyone’s guess, but regardless, cricketers’ involvement in the highly polarising debate was seen by some as the destruction of a crucial pillar of a free and democratic Indian society—the separation of cricket and politics. Upon deeper inspection, though, one finds that this merger was made well before the events of the past few months.
The internal politics and corruption within the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have been on display for decades now. Likewise, several political parties have sought to capitalise on the popularity of cricketers by inviting them to run for office once they have retired, such as Gautam Gambhir, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Mohammad Azharuddin, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, Kirti Azad, Chetan Chauhan, and Manoj Prabhakar. However, the participation of active cricketers in political discourse is a trend that has only emerged over the course of the last few years.
India’s sovereignty cannot be compromised. External forces can be spectators but not participants.
— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) February 3, 2021
Indians know India and should decide for India. Let's remain united as a nation.#IndiaTogether #IndiaAgainstPropaganda
Let us all stay united in this hour of disagreements. Farmers are an integral part of our country and I'm sure an amicable solution will be found between all parties to bring about peace and move forward together. #IndiaTogether
— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) February 3, 2021
India has always been stronger when we all stand together and finding a solution is the need of the hour. Our farmers play an important role in our nation’s well being and I am sure everyone will play their roles to find a solution TOGETHER. #IndiaTogether 🇮🇳
— Rohit Sharma (@ImRo45) February 3, 2021
As the world's largest democracy, India is more than capable of taking her internal issues to amicable solutions. Onwards and upwards. #IndiaTogether#IndiaAgainstPropaganda
— Anil Kumble (@anilkumble1074) February 3, 2021
Agriculture is a very important part of the machinery of the Indian economic system. Farmers are the backbone of any country’s ecosystem. This is an internal matter which I’m sure will be resolved through dialogue. Jai Hind! #IndiaStandsTogether #IndiaAgainstPropoganda 🇮🇳
— Ravi Shastri (@RaviShastriOfc) February 3, 2021
There’s no issue that cannot be resolved if we stand together as one. Let’s remain united and work towards resolving our internal issues #IndiaTogether
— Ajinkya Rahane (@ajinkyarahane88) February 3, 2021
In fact, active Indian cricketers have historically sought to distance themselves from having any political opinion at all, even on seemingly low-hanging fruit like Pakistan and Kashmir. For example, two days after India exited the 2012 T20 World Cup, Pakistan was knocked out in the semi-final by Sri Lanka. This prompted Suresh Raina, who was part of India’s squad, to tweet: “Ek do din late gaye ghar !!! Woh bhi besharam ki tarah Gaye... Bye bye Pakistan!!!!” (They went home late just one or two days later and that too shamelessly). One day later, after public backlash over his crass celebration of an opponent’s failure, albeit Pakistan, Raina deleted the tweet and preposterously blamed his nephew for sending out the tweet, saying, “Smart phones r dangerous. Discovered it last night after my nephew posted random tweets. I’m a sportsman and would never disrespect,” adding, “Though I already deleted it, I felt its better to clarify. To all those who r upset, I’m sorry. I’m not one to show disrespect.”
Aside from staying clear of anything even remotely political, active cricketers have also typically maintained a deferential but neutral stance towards the government. For example, ahead of the 2019 World Cup in England, captain Virat Kohli was pressed on unconfirmed reports that India may pull out of its clash with Pakistan on June 16 at Old Trafford as an act of political protest against the Pulwama terror attack in February of that year, when 40 Indian soldiers were killed by a suicide bomber. Kohli told reporters: “Our stand is simple. We stick by what the nation wants to do and what the BCCI decides to do and that is basically our opinion,” and reiterated, “Whatever the government and the board decide, we will eventually go by that and will respect that. So that is our stand on this particular issue.” Later that year, Kohli refused to be drawn on comments made by ex-Pakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi on the human rights situation in Kashmir, saying that, while he “opposes” anyone who speaks against the “interests” of the country, “it’s a very personal choice for someone to make comment about certain issues”.
However, the political environment in India has been rapidly transforming since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came into power in 2014 and ushered in a new wave of hypernationalism. In this raging cauldron, Raina’s comments would likely be much better received today than they were nine years ago. In fact, since Kohli’s comments two years ago, the Indian captain and his colleagues have grown increasingly vocal and shown a willingness to abandon this historical neutrality.
At first, it was cricketers entering the twilight of their career who had either retired from international cricket or had little to no chance of being selected in the national squad.
Last April, Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh both posted videos to their social media pages seeking to raise money for Afridi’s charity for underprivileged children. However, after Afridi once again spoke disparagingly of India’s policies in Kashmir and of Indian Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi, both Yuvraj and Harbhajan quickly sought to sever ties with him. Speaking on Afridi’s “anti-India” comments, Harbhajan said, “I feel terrible that I even called him a friend. He is not a worthy human being who can be called a friend. I am done with calling Afridi a friend.” Yuvraj, too, made similar comments and said that he would “never” make such a mistake again.
Yes NEVER AGAIN no matter what https://t.co/PZBWAEoloR
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) May 17, 2020
Similarly, Sachin Tendulkar, who retired in 2013, said of Afridi’s comments: “We have got capable people to manage and run our country. No outsider needs to know or tell us what we need to do.” Likewise, Kapil Dev, who retired in 1994, said, “Who is he? Why are we giving importance to him? We should not be giving importance to certain people,” Even Suresh Raina is no longer attempting to hide behind his nephew and has said over the past two years: “I hope Shahid bhai asks Pakistan Army to stop terrorism and proxy war in our Kashmir”; “[Pakistan is] a nation that is living on alms”; and “[Kashmir] is and will always remain an inalienable part of India”.
And now, the latest episode with the farmers’ protests shows that even active cricketers who are still years from retirement and currently part of the national team are finding their voice in the political arena.
This shift has been driven by the increasing presence of the ruling BJP in the BCCI at various levels of the Board. For instance, BJP MP Anurag Thakur, who in 2020 infamously rallied a crowd to chant “Desh ke gaddaron ko, goli maaro saalon ko” (shoot the traitors of the nation) before the Delhi assembly polls, simultaneously served as BCCI President from May 2015 to February 2017. Even after his departure, the BJP’s footprint on the BCCI has remained firmly entrenched; his younger brother, Arun Dhamal, is now the Treasurer of the BCCI. Similarly, Home Minister Amit Shah’s son, Jay Shah, is the Secretary of the Board. As a result, many of the top positions of the BCCI have now been captured by the government and brought former and current cricketers onto the BJP’s side.
In December 2019, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly, the former captain of the Indian cricket team, was forced to denounce comments by his own daughter, who, amidst the controversial protests against the government’s Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), labelled the Modi government as a “fascist regime” that is “built on hate” and “continually creates fear and strife” in a country where now “no one is safe”. In response, Ganguly put out a tweet saying that his daughter is “too young a girl to know anything in politics”.
It is thus no surprise that active players like Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Hardik Pandya, and Shikhar Dhawan, as well as former players like Tendulkar, RP Singh, Anil Kumble, and Ravi Shastri (who incidentally is the current coach of the Indian cricket team) have followed the lead of the cricket board’s president. All of the aforementioned cricketers tweeted virtually identical messages against ‘interference’ in India’s ‘internal’ affairs amidst a groundswell of popular discontent against the government’s newly-introduced farm bills from both within and outside India. Journalist Pratik Sinha and author Karthik Srinivasan have noted the broad similarities of the posts made by Indian athletes and entertainers, such as the use of the word ‘amicable’, to suggest that these public figures were given prepared statements or at least some sort of loose directive on what to say.
There's a circus, there's a ring master and there are those who perform when the whip is cracked. pic.twitter.com/oqdo37Izl5
— Pratik Sinha (@free_thinker) February 4, 2021
The last time such a massive pantheon of stars descended on Twitter with largely similar-worded sentiment... pic.twitter.com/qbBbobxHnt
— Karthik (@beastoftraal) February 4, 2021
Against this backdrop, where the independence of India’s cricketing fraternity and administration appears to have been breached and compromised by the Indian government, it is commendable that there are still some, like former Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan and budding star Shubman Gill, who have stood up in the face of this expectation to side with the government. Pathan has previously written about the democratic right to protests against the CAA, and, during the ongoing farmers’ protests, has rhetorically asked why Indians commentary on the murder of George Floyd last year was not considered to be interference in the United States’ internal affairs.
When George Floyd was brutally murdered in the USA by a policeman,our country rightly expressed our grief. #justsaying
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) February 4, 2021
Both supporting and opposing government policies are constitutionally protected rights and must remain so. However, the government’s use of celebrities to spread pre-prepared statements represents a dangerous assault on India’s democracy. The government’s devious rental of cricketers’ platforms as political megaphones threatens to manipulate political discourse and infringes on the rights to independent freedoms of speech and thought.
Unfortunately, however, this tide already appears to have turned across South Asia (with Sarfraz Nawaz and Imran Khan in Pakistan; Arjuna Ranatunga, Sanath Jayasuriya, and Hashan Tilakaratne in Sri Lanka; and Mashrafe Mortaza in Bangladesh), demonstrating the narrowing gap between cricket and politics. Consequently, this beautiful game, which has already been stained by the historic blemishes of match-fixing, administrative corruption, nepotism, and regionalism, is losing whatever little innocence it has left, and the escapism it provides for hundreds of millions of people from the trials and tribulations of politics and everyday life is now rapidly dissipating.