Congress leader Sachin Sawant on Monday said that the Maharashtra government will investigate tweets by some Indian celebrities in support of farm laws after pop star Rihanna took to the social media, criticising the government handling of farmers’ protest.

“There was a series of tweets after MEA's response to Rihanna's tweet. If a person, be it a celebrity, opine on their own, it's fine but there's a scope of suspicion that BJP could be behind this. We have cited common words like 'amicable' in these tweets," said Sawant.

He said that Home Minister Anil Deshmukh has given orders to the Maharashtra Intelligence Department to probe the matter.

The development comes after Maharashtra Congress leaders held a virtual meeting with the state Home Minister earlier today seeking an investigation to find out if the celebrities were under pressure by the BJP.

Several Indian celebrities including Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn, Karan Johar, Suneil Shetty, Anil Kumble and Lata Mangeshkar have tweeted on unity and farm laws.

On February 2, Rihanna shared an article on Twitter on ongoing protest in India against the three farm laws.

why aren’t we talking about this?! #FarmersProtest https://t.co/obmIlXhK9S

— Rihanna (@rihanna) February 2, 2021

(Edited by : Aditi Gautam)

First Published:Feb 8, 2021 3:47 PM IST