Sunny Deol farmers' protests misinfo controversy

Usually quiet Sunny Deol, actor-politician has been drawn into a misinformation controversy that he has been ‘rewarded’ for publicly coming out to say he stands with the BJP. On December 6, Sunny Deol had tweeted on the issue and on Deep Sidhu who was with Sunny Deol during elections and has now allegedly taken up the issue of Khalistan among other things. Sunny, clarifying his position said he (Sunny) is with his party (BJP) and the farmers and asked everyone else to stay out of it.

He further clarified Deep Sidhu is no longer with Sunny Deol and Sunny has nothing to do with Deep Sidhu or his motives.

Within days, someone in the media noticed Y-category security provided by the government to Sunny Deol and tried to connect the dots. Reports suggested as if Y-category security was provided to Sunny Deol as a reward for his public position of solidarity with the BJP. Readers would remember Harsimrat Kaur Badal resigned from Modi’s cabinet on these three farm bills and the SAD broke off its coalition with the BJP on the issue.

In that context, media’s attempt to connect the dots appeared to be logical.

According to Sunny Deol that’s neither true nor correct. He tweeted and dismissed those reports suggesting he was given Y-category security by the government after his December 6 tweet expressing his views on the ongoing farmers’ protest.

Tweeting in Hindi, Sunny wrote, “Since yesterday, there have been some inaccurate media reports that I have recently received Y-category security. I have been provided this security since July 2020. An attempt has been made to link this security provision to the ongoing farmers’ protest which is wrong.”

“I request my media colleagues to verify the facts before publishing any news” he added in a follow up tweet.

Farmers, mostly from Punjab and Haryana, have been protesting against the new farm bills for nearly three weeks now. Their concern is that the new laws could corporatise agriculture and make obsolete the system of guaranteed minimum support prices.

Many celebrities in India, from all walks of life but primarily from showbiz have been commenting on the issue. Sunny’s father Dharmendra, has also urged the government to resolve the matter soon. He tweeted, “I am extremely in pain to see the suffering of my farmer brothers . Government should do something fast.”

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