With Gujarat assembly polls weeks away, Ravindra Jadeja, a prolific all-rounder who is not one to back out from challenges, jumped into the political fray to campaign for his wife, Rivaba Jadeja, who is BJP’s candidate from Jamnagar.
Jadeja, who has become a linchpin to the Indian cricket team’s success in the Tests and T20I formats and whose absence due to injury cost them dearly in the recently concluded T20 world cup, has been on a campaign trail to promote his wife’s candidacy for the Jamnagar (North) Vidhan Sabha seat in the forthcoming assembly polls.
The southpaw has been a constant presence in the political campaign as his wife, Rivaba Jadeja, faces tough contests from veteran rivals. She is up against Bipendrasinh Jadeja of the Congress and AAP’s Karsan Karmur, who was with the BJP until a year ago, in her election debut. She also has to assuage sitting BJP MLA Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, who seems unconcerned about her campaign.
With challenges galore, Jadeja has stood like a pillar for her wife, extensively campaigning for the BJP leader and leveraging his popularity to sway potential voters into the BJP’s fold. As a part of the campaign trail, Jadeja, along with his wife, met Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah on Monday. Shah was in town to take stock of the poll campaign and canvass for the BJP candidates.
And not just in the physical realm, but in the online world too, Jadeja’s presence has been pervasive, assiduously promoting his wife’s candidacy for the upcoming assembly Gujarat polls.
Recently, Jadeja shared pictures of the meeting with Amit Shah at the Jamnagar airport. “Pleasure meeting you sir @AmitShah #jamnagar” tweeted.
No sooner did the Chennai Super Kings cricketer shared the pictures of his meetings with Amit Shah, a host of Islamists and leftwing trolls descended on his timeline, attacking him for meeting the former BJP chief and using racial slurs to diss the cricketer for aligning himself with the saffron party.
Ravindra Jadeja attracts the wrath of Islamists and leftwing trolls for campaigning for his wife Rivaba Jadeja
A Twitter user responded to Jadeja’s tweet saying that he is sure going to lose a lot of fans and supporters.
Another digruntled Twitter user who appeared to be an Arvind Kejriwal fanboi, tweeted, “Retire from cricket.”
With Ravindra Jadeja being the centre of discussion, some leftist trolls inevitably dragged his Rajput identity to attack the cricketer.
What the attack against Jadeja reflects about the leftwing mentality
First and foremost, Rivaba Jadeja is the spouse of Ravindra Jadeja. The outrage against the cricketer over campaigning for BJP is entirely misplaced, as her husband, Jadeja, is pulling no punches to help his wife emerge victorious in her latest political pursuit. Jadeja is assisting his wife in his capacity as a husband, which any reasonable spouse does to help their partner in fulfilling their personal, professional, or political aspirations.
Jadeja was campaigning for his wife’s victory in the upcoming polls, as any other husband would. But just because his wife is a BJP candidate, the leftwing supporters, who keep citing the Constitution of India ad nauseam and the individual rights enshrined in it, were willing to disenfranchise the cricketer and use casteist slurs against him.
Secondly, the abominable casteist slur against Ravindra Jadeja reflects the hypocrisy of the leftwing supporters, who accuse others of perpetuating caste discrimination but behave in the same manner to run down their ideological opponents. While they champion the cause of individual rights, they feel no qualms about trampling over them when attacking their opponent. While they virtue signal against using casteist slurs, they spare no time indulging in the same behaviour to denigrate people whose political ideology is at odds with theirs.
However, this is not the first time that Jadeja faced an online attack for being a Rajput and exercising his constitutional right to side with a political party his wife is associated with. And through his conduct over the years, Jadeja has shown that he is not one to be cowed down by such perverse attacks. Instead of ducking the bouncers thrown at him by the leftwing trolls, Jadeja decided to take them on, swatting them for sixes all around the park.
Ravindra Jadeja shows how to bat against leftwing outrage factory
In March 2019, Islamists targeted Ravindra Jadeja after his wife, Rivaba Jadeja, joined the BJP. And since then, Jadeja has been a focal point of Islamist criticism and woke leftists, who have attacked him for his association with the BJP and the unabashed embracement of his Rajput identity.
Earlier last year, woke trolls targeted Jadeja after he posted a tweet where he called himself a ‘proud Rajput boy’. “#RAJPUTBOY FOREVER. Jai Hind,” Jadeja tweeted.
Jadeja’s bold tweet betrayed that he cared two hoots about the outrage that would inevitably follow after he asserted his Rajput identity. It showed his haughty disregard for the leftwing users, who have made it their profession to attack those who are proud of their Hindu roots and cultural heritage.
For some time now, the leftist trolls on social media platforms have attacked notable celebrities who have not shied away from expressing their caste and Hindu identity. These trolls not only resort to abusing, threatening and humiliating such personalities online but they also indulge in promoting “cancel culture” against them and encouraging their social ostracism, simply because their ideology did not converge with theirs.
However, it did little to deter Jadeja from asserting his identity. Instead, it emboldened him to continue wearing his identity on his sleeve and drive the leftwing trolls up the bend. Far from forfeiting one’s identity and meekly surrendering to their outrage, Jadeja displayed that the only way to fight the scourge of leftwing trolls is to rub them in and continue to assert one’s identity.