Dharmendra’s deleted tweet on the protest carried the same photograph of himself.
A week after he posted and quickly deleted a tweet referring to the ongoing farmers’ protest, Bollywood actor Dharmendra Deol, today once against commented about the crisis, saying the government needed to “do something fast” to ease his “farmer brothers'” pain.
“I’m extremely in pain to see the suffering of my farmer brothers,” the 85-year-old former BJP MP from Bikaner, Rajasthan, said in a tweet again.
I am extremely in pain to see the suffering of my farmer brothers . Government should do something fast . pic.twitter.com/WtaxdTZRg7
— Dharmendra Deol (@aapkadharam) December 11, 2020
Thousands of farmers across the country, especially those from Punjab and Haryana, have been protesting for the past few weeks against three central government agricultural laws passed in September, gathering support from many political parties. Multiple rounds of talks with the central government have failed to break the impasse, with the farmers seeking the complete repeal of the three ordinances.
Mr Deol, who is popularly known as only Dharmendra, was a BJP MP between 2004 and 2009, but has always worn his farming roots on his sleeve. Earlier this month, he had posted a similar tweet, seeking a speedy resolution to the issue. However, the tweet was deleted ostensibly after trolls targeted the actor.
Interestingly, the older tweet, partly in Hindi, carried the same sullen photograph of himself that the actor posted today in his latest tweet.
His son, Bollywood actor Sunny Deol, is a BJP parliamentarian from Gurdaspur, Punjab, a state that has been the centre of the protest. Referring to the issue earlier this month, the actor took a rather non-committal position. “I stand with my party and farmers and will always be with farmers. Our government is always thinking of farmers…” he tweeted in Hindi.
Mr Deol’s wife, Hema Malini, is also a BJP member and a parliamentarian from the Mathura constituency in Uttar Pradesh. She, too, has been largely silent over the issue though a good section of protesting farmers are from Uttar Pradesh, too.
