Farmers Protest: Super Bowl commercial draws attention to India’s farmers’ protest

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Super Bowl, the American National Football League, is a platform where some of the world’s most famous ads are launched every year, and this year apart from the regular commercials the game draws attention towards the farmers’ protest in India, terming it the “largest protest in the human history”.

It was not immediately clear as to who paid for the expensive advertisement slot and it was aired in states other than California too.

[expander_maker id=”1″ more=”Read more” less=”Read less”] The 30-second advertisement began with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. and termed the ongoing farmers’ protest as the “largest protest in history”. Super Bowl commercials are high-profile television advertisements known for their cinematic quality.

Thousands of farmers, especially from Punjab and Haryana, are staging a sit-in protest along Delhi’s borders for more than 75 days. The farmers are demanding a complete rollback of the three new agriculture reform laws and a guarantee on the Minimum Support Price (MSP) system being retained.

Multiple rounds of talks between the Centre and the farmers’ union leaders have ended in a stalemate. Protesting farmers fear that the new laws will dismantle the MSP system and corporatise farming.

The Supreme Court had earlier ordered a stay on the implementation of the laws, hoping it will end the protest. The protests started receiving global attention last week after tweets from Barbadian singer Rihanna, Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg and American vlogger Amanda Cerny, among others.

After this, India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had urged foreign individuals and celebrities to ascertain facts and undertake a proper understanding of the matter before rushing to comment on it. “The temptation of sensationalist social media hashtags and comments, especially when resorted to by celebrities and others, is neither accurate nor responsible,” the ministry said.[/expander_maker]