The recent nomination of cricketer Sachin Tendulkar to the Rajya Sabha has sparked off a “tweet war” between his fans and those who oppose his nomination on microblogging site Twitter.
A trend named #UnfollowSachin has been trending on the website.
The campaign seems to have been started by a user by the handle of Mister India, who tweeted, “There should be an #Unfollo-wSachin Campaign on Twitter. RT (ReTweet) if you agree.”
The trend was greeted by tweets ranging from sceptical to sarcastic to outright hateful. Die-hard Sachin fans lost no time in condemning the trend and the person who started it.
Sachin haters were quick to drag in memories of the last controversy surrounding the cricket star, involving his Ferrari. Sachin had allegedly requested a custom duty waiver on the car, and the car company ultimately paid the duty to end the controversy. “Will Sachin show the same respect for public money that he showed when he got exemption for his Ferrari?” tweeted G. Kundra.
Another Twitter user, Rita Putatunda, asked, “How about Sachin for President?” Most of the hate-tweets, however, see-med to be against the government. “You ‘were’ my favourite cricketer…Sorry to say from now on you are nothing but a corrupt Congressy,” tweeted TheDevil_Heart.
Meanwhile, Sachin loyalists stood by their idol. Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur wrote, “I think it’s great that Sachin goes to Rajya Sabha. Better than many many that have gone before.” Finally, there were those who tried to get the point across that Sachin was only a nominated member. “Dear #UnfollowS-achin warriors. A little attention during Civics classes in Class X would have helped,” tweeted Dhananjay Mhatre.
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