Farmers Movement Archive

Farmer's protest: Netizens back stir, take hoe to hashtag

JALANDHAR: The hashtag has joined the humble hoe in the fight against contentious farm laws. While an army of protesting farmers is camping on the Delhi border for the long haul, many prominent Punjabi artistes, a handful of social media influencers and even a former MP have taken the battle to Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp. “We will bring 25,000 new Twitter users for Punjab to reply to the propaganda machinery of the BJP government. The difference is, ours will be real people,” posted Ludhianabased Bhavjit Singh as the “Tractor2Twitr” campaign got underway on Sunday. Initiated by Dr Amandeep Singh Bains and some of his friends, the campaign has already got the support of many Punjabi NRIs. Punjabi netizens have a strong presence on Facebook, but they are relatively thinner on Twitter. Over the last two days, FB has been the medium of choice to issue appeals for anyone pro-farmer to join Twitter and respond to “attacks against the Punjabi farmers’ agitation that are coming mainly through tweets”. In “an important message to Punjab social media activists” on his FB page, former AAP MP Dr Dharamvira Gandhi requested all Punjabis across religions, castes, trades and professions to come forward through social media platforms and defeat the “troll army’s propaganda and malicious narrative of dubbing peacefully protesting farmers as Khalistanis and urban naxals”. Another netizen, Harsh Kumar Bhalla, has started writing messages in Hindi “to reach out to a larger constituency”. The hashtag “istandwithfarmerschallenge” has since gone viral. Punjabi singer-actor Amrinder Gill issued an appeal asking everyone with access to social media to join Twitter “to spread the message of Punjabi farmers’ struggle”. Actor Rana Ranbir had been among the first artistes to campaign for support on social media. Singer-actors Diljit Dosanjh and Gippy Grewal, too, issued appeals on Twitter to run hashtags in support of farmers.

The Times of India

2020-11-30

India