Former Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag opted for a controversial tweet to launch a World Environment Day 2017 campaign for a cab aggregator. He tweeted “Global warning ho rahi hogi US mein. Traffic and congestions se India ke pollution par kya farak padta hai ! Concentrate on real issues !”
Within minutes of tweeting, Sehwag received a huge number of responses questioning him for his controversial statement. Twitter users retorted with facts and statements regarding traffic and congestion being the main reason for growing pollution levels in cities. The activity led to an outburst on Twitter, and went viral.
Global warning ho rahi hogi US mein.Traffic and congestions se India ke pollution par kya farak padta hai ! Concentrate on real issues !
— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) June 2, 2017
“That's surprising. Delhi, the city you are from, is one of the most polluted cities in the world and high traffic is one of the reasons.” – @Trendulkar
No because i followed him as he was a cricketer, not for this. He has a school and he says global warming is american phenomenon.
— vikrant (@tweekrant) June 2, 2017
“Global warming IS THE REAL ISSUE. Biggest threat to our Planet. In your school, hire qualified Science teachers who don't talk like you. Thx.” – @autumnrainwish
Plz for the love of education, in your 'international school', hire a qualified science teacher, otherwise the kids will turn out like you.
— Prerna Bakshi (@bprerna) June 2, 2017
Can sm1 explain what he meant ? pic.twitter.com/6hbvKls3Bi
— कोमल 🙂 ?? (@Komal_Indian) June 2, 2017
हिमाचल से लेकर मेघालय तक की एक ट्रिप लगा लें,वहाँ तापमान लगातार बढने से पिघलते ग्लेशियर,दरकते पहाड़,बदहाल खेत सड़कें आपकी आँखें खोल देंगे। pic.twitter.com/1mKFPmxVaJ
— Mrinal Pande (@MrinalPande1) June 2, 2017
After being questioned and trolled for his strange tweet for over 5 hours, Sehwag made a comeback revealing the larger objective and his message for all. He clarified that this was a part of Ola's “FarakPadtaHai” campaign aimed at garnering everyone's attention towards growing traffic congestion in cities, and encourage them to take action.
“Great to see so much concern. Traffic & pollution r real issues! This World Environment Day, Ola Share karo, congestion ghatao #FarakPadtaHai” – @virendersehwag
.Great to see so much concern.Traffic & pollution r real issues! This World Environment Day,Ola Share karo, congestion ghatao #FarakPadtaHai pic.twitter.com/squOq840KQ
— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) June 2, 2017
Adding to this on Twitter, Sehwag's also released a video message to promote the protection of environment. “The activity and Sehwag's message reached far and wide, achieving the intention of generating mass-level awareness. On Twitter, more than 30 million impressions for this activity were witnessed,” said Ola.
This is not the first time that Sehwag has made such a controversy, he was earlier critised for his notorious tweets on DU student Gurmehar Kaur, who had launched an online campaign against ABVP after the Ramjas college violence.
