'From the King's men': Congress Kerala alleges pressure on Sachin Tendulkar to delete post with Rahul Gandhi

A social-media post by the official X handle of the Kerala unit of the Congress on Wednesday, February 11, sparked a political controversy after it alleged that cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar faced pressure to delete and repost a photograph with Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi that had garnered significantly higher engagement than his posts with other national leaders.

On Tuesday, Tendulkar had met a series of top political leaders in New Delhi to personally invite them to the wedding of his son, Arjun Tendulkar. He shared photos of these meetings across his social-media accounts.

According to Congress Kerala, Tendulkar posted his photo with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at 7:13 pm, followed by a picture with Union Home Minister Amit Shah at 8:18 pm, and another with President Droupadi Murmu at 8:48 pm. The photo with Rahul Gandhi, shared at 9:22 pm, however, reportedly received unusually high traction.

The Congress unit wrote on X: “Among all these, the post with Rahul Gandhi went viral, clocking 627K views in just over two hours.”

The party further alleged that this surge in engagement “did not go down well” with what it described as “the King”, without explicitly naming anyone. According to the post, there was “alleged pressure” on Tendulkar to remove and quietly re-upload the photo at a time when fewer users would be active.

“The King’s men allegedly pressured Sachin to delete the post and quietly repost it at 12:19 AM, when most people are asleep, hoping it would not attract the same traction,” the Congress Kerala handle claimed.
It added: “But by then, people had already noticed.”

The post went on to take a swipe at the central leadership:
“If someone sitting in the highest chair in the country feels insecure over social media views, it is not strength. It is deep insecurity dressed up as power.”