'Indians should decide for India': Sachin Tendulkar after Rihanna's post on farmers protest

New Delhi, Feb 03: Indian legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar on Wednesday called for unity in India, in what can be seen as a veiled response to the international starts like Rihanna and Greta Thunberg, who have extended support to farmers protest in India.

"India's sovereignty cannot be compromised. External forces can be spectators but not participants. Indians know India and should decide for India. Let's remain united as a nation," the cricketer tweeted with hashtag, #IndiaAgainstPropaganda, #IndiaTogether.

Echoing similar sentiment, India head coach Ravi Shastri aserted that nobody should meddle with this as it's a internal matter.

"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," Shastri tweeted.

India on Wednesday hit out at tweets by global celebrities such as singer Rihanna and climate activist Greta Thunberg in support of the farmers' protests, the focus of a sharply polarised international debate that saw many Bollywood stars and top ministers rally around the government in its pushback.

Rihanna, among the biggest pop stars of the day with 101 million followers on Twitter, started the global chorus of support for India's farmers.

"Why aren't we talking about this?! #FarmersProtest," she tweeted, linking a CNN news article on the internet shutdown around New Delhi as protesters clashed with the police.

The pushback happened with the hashtags #IndiaTogether and #IndiaAgainstPropaganda being used in the MEA statement and several Bollywood stars who joined top ministers to criticise the "half truths" of international forces.