Indian netizens’ outrage at those perceived as toeing the government’s line on the farmers’ agitation runs so deep that it has shredded the immunity enjoyed by even Sachin Tendulkar, a man the country’s cricket fans habitually referred to as “God”.

Indians, predominantly Malayalis, have flooded the Twitter handle of retired Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova, apologising for trolling her seven years ago when she said she didn’t know Tendulkar.

The gist of most of the posts – triggered by anger at what the tweeters saw as Tendulkar’s endorsement of the government’s handling of the farmers’ protest — was that the writers too had realised they didn’t really know Tendulkar all these years.

“Yes.... we also dont know the new @sachin_rt. Sorry for the comments two years before. #maapakkanam,” wrote Jiffy Shams.

“Sorry to say after long seven years we could recognise him. We wish we didn’t know Sachin Tenduker, sorry for the FB abuse,” said Seeker.

Tanmay’s acid comment was: “It’s better not to know who Sachin actually is, sorry for whatever was said before.”

Hundreds of these tweets were posted in Malayalam, a language Sharapova would be even more unfamiliar with than the name “Tendulkar”, but the 33-year-old would have got a sense of the messages from the heart and flower emojis and smileys accompanying them.

A reporter had asked the US-based Russian star at Wimbledon in 2014 whether she had noticed Tendulkar in the stands, to which she said she didn’t know who he was.
The comment prompted Tendulkar fans to roast her on social media, unmindful that cricket was not a well-known game in Sharapova’s country of origin or domicile.

The trolls were particularly sore because Sharapova had acknowledged noticing English footballer David Beckham in the stands and described him as a good human being.
But the tables were turned when Tendulkar — along with several other Indian cricketers and Bollywood celebrities — joined a government-sponsored chorus against foreigners commenting on India’s “internal” matters after Barbadian singer Rihanna and climate-change activist Greta Thunberg expressed solidarity with the agitating farmers.

“India’s sovereignty cannot be compromised. External forces can be spectators but not participants. Indians know India and should decide for India. Let’s remain united as a nation,” Tendulkar wrote on Wednesday with the foreign ministry-created hashtags #IndiaTogether and #IndiaAgainstPropaganda.

The avalanche of tweets apologising to Sharapova began on Thursday, with some going so far as to call Tendulkar “a fascism enabler” or a “puppet of BCCI”.

“We apologise for the abuses hurled at you! We happened to excessively adore that xxxx xxxxx. We know we are late in rectifying our mistake. But please do forgive,” a Twitter user, Peter, posted in Malayalam.

“Maria, please forgive this brother. We didn’t realise that Sachin was scared of ED and Modi,” tweeted Thanseel Acherivayalil.

“A load of apologies. Sister, we failed to have your farsightedness,” tweeted Mohammed Riyas.

It’s not clear how many of those apologising had actually targeted Sharapova in 2014.

The sudden pro-Sharapova sentiment among Indians seems also to have helped escalate the responses to her recent tweets, which had nothing to do with the farmers’ protest or Tendulkar.

While the “likes” she received for her posts ranged from a few hundred to about 6,000 until Wednesday, the number had by Friday rocketed to 13,000-odd for a tweet that showed an old image of hers in tennis gear.

A random check suggested a massive Malayali presence among those who have “liked” or shared her tweets since Thursday.

The keyboard warriors of Kerala — the state with the second-highest smart phone penetration after Delhi --- have a proud history of trolling the Sangh parivar and its supporters.

Sadhvi Saraswati of the Madhya Pradesh-based Sanatan Dharma Prachar Seva Samiti tasted their firepower in 2018 after telling a Hindutva convention in Kasaragod that those who slaughtered the “Gau Mata” in Kerala “have no right to live in India”. Malayalis flooded her Facebook page with recipes and pictures of beef dishes.

Two years earlier, when the BJP brass including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then party chief Amit Shah had descended on Kozhikode for the party’s national council, tweets with the hashtag #ShahtoRahmath invited them to the Rahmath Hotel, famous for its beef biryani.

Sharapova too received invites, but the tone was different.

Regretting “a mistake we did 7 yrs back”, Ivaanka Hatun posted: “Kindly accept the apologies sister. Please visit Kerala once after the pandemic.”