New Delhi: Some of the biggest Indian film and sports personalities endorsing the Union territory of Lakshadweep using the same photographs displays what a researcher has identified as the “relationship between the government and celebrity social media.”Joyojeet Pal has noted in his post on X, that he and his fellow researchers have noted this trend for a while. Pal and others had studied how famous Indians had posted identical tweets (the website was then called Twitter) in support of the Union government after American musician Rihanna’s tweet on the farmers’ protest.Pal has posted a list of papers that display how the Narendra Modi government purportedly banks on the popularity and support of celebrities. “One-sided callouts to high influence accounts by Modi [also] helped perform a celebrity-driven endorsement of the 2014 campaign,” he noted.A partial list of Indian mainstream movie stars and sportspersons endorsing #Lakshadweep often using the same pics emphasizes the relationship between the government & celebrity social mediaWe’ve followed this for a while.Some of our work & a thread:https://t.co/f6cc0j7Owr pic.twitter.com/iKGHjlCiqh— joyojeet pal (@joyopal) January 7, 2024He also noted how crucial such engagements are now.A social media controversy has erupted in the wake of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s much-publicised visit to the Lakshadweep islands, with supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party projecting the visit as a signal to consider replacing Maldives with other Indian tourist destinations.Meanwhile, response from some Maldives government ministers had been critical and three deputy ministers were suspended.At the same time the hashtag #ExploreIndianIslands was made to trend and celebrities began tweeting what appeared to be raging endorsements of Lakshadweep.Among film personalities are Salman Khan, Kartik Aryan, Madhur Bhandarkar, Akshay Kumar, Ekta Kapoor, Tiger Shroff, Bhumi Pednekar, Shraddha Kapoor, Kangana Ranaut, Varun Dhawan, Nimrat Kaur, Pooja Hegde, Jackky Bhagnani, Pooja Panday, and others.Among sportspersons are Hardik Pandya.Like Pal had mentioned, a similar phenomenon was seen in 2021, when shortly after a section of Bollywood celebrities tweeted within an hour’s window in support of the Ministry of External Affairs’ backlash against international personalities supporting the farmers’ movement, India’s biggest sports personalities also tweeted along the same lines.Similar to the MEA’s announcement, they all noted that ‘external forces’ cannot be participants in India’s internal matters.Meanwhile, while endorsing Lakshadweep, minister Kiren Rijiju appeared to have used an image of the Maldives island.you had one job😄😄😄😄😄 pic.twitter.com/V658NX3nQi— meghnad 🔗 (@Memeghnad) January 8, 2024
