Hashtags in support of farmers' protests trends; Kangana Ranaut, Mukesh Khanna face backlash

Sukhmeet Bhasin
Tribune News Service
Bathinda, December 1

Hashtags in support of farmers' protest have been trending on social media for days. Bharti Kisan Union (BKU)-Ekta Ugrahan on Tuesday morning took to their Facebook account, and appealed to trend with "#Freefarmersfromcoporates".

BKU wrote in Punjabi: "ਸੋਸ਼ਲ ਮੀਡੀਆ ਉੱਤੇ ਤਰ੍ਹਾਂ ਤਰ੍ਹਾਂ ਦੇ ਹੈਸ਼ਟੈਗ ਟ੍ਰੈਂਡ ਕਰ ਰਹੇ ਹਨ। ਜੋ ਕਿ ਬਹੁਤ ਚੰਗੀ ਗੱਲ ਹੈ । ਚੰਗਾ ਹੋਵੇ ਕਿ ਇਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਹੈਸ਼ਟੈਗ ਵਿਚ ਸਾਡਾ ਨਿਸ਼ਾਨਾ ਹੋਰ ਵੀ ਸਪਸ਼ਟ ਹੋਵੇ ।ਕਾਰਪੋਰੇਟ ਤੇ ਸੱਟ ਮਾਰੋ ਅਤੇ ਦਨੀਆ ਭਰ ਦੇ ਕਿਰਤੀਆਂ ਨੂੰ ਨਾਲ ਲਵੋ । ਸੋ ਬਾਕੀ ਸਾਰੇ ਹੈਸ਼ ਟੈਗ ਦੇ ਨਾਲ ਨਾਲ ਇਹ ਹੈਸ਼ਟੈਗ ਵੀ ਟ੍ਰੈਂਡ ਕਰਵਾਓ .Free Farmers From Corporates. (Various hashtags are trending on social media. That's a good thing. It would be good if our purpose in these hashtags is even clearer. Hit the corporate and take the workers from all over the world along. So get this hashtag trending along with all the other hashtags Free Farmers From Corporates)," read the caption.

Netizens have been constantly posting updates from protest sites of Delhi borders. They have been sharing interviews of leaders, protestors, and giving development of farmers' protests.

Over the last two days, Facebook has become the medium of choice to issue appeals for any pro-farmer. Since "attacks against the Punjabi farmers' agitation that are coming mainly through tweets" they appealed to shift to Twitter as well.

B-town celebs Kangana Ranaut and Mukesh Khanna—who tweeted against the farmers' protest—have faced severe backlash.

Besides this, Kisan Unions are receiving quite the attraction on social media.

In the month of September, BKU Ekta Ugrahan had around 58k followers, and about 45k people had liked their page, but now, it has 1.15 lakh followers and 81.5k page likes.

The Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee's followers count has also increased from 67k to 59k by September end. Similarly, BKU Sidhupur page followers have hiked to 26.5K from 22K.

Despite this, Punjabi singer Jazzy B and Amarinder Gill have appealed to their fans to come out in support of farmers fight with hashtags on social media.

While thousands of farmers took to the streets, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP)—from their verified Twitter account— shared a clip of nameless farmers talking about the benefits of the new agriculture laws.

Farm unions claim that social media is needed for public outreach.

Moreover, netizens are using this platform to counter the negative narratives being run in the national media.