Have visited Marathwada and paid off farmers' loans: Sanjay Manjrekar

Sanjay Manjrekar. (Getty Images)
MUMBAI: Hurt by a severe backlash on social media after his tweet on locusts was termed 'insensitive' towards farmers by a few fans, former India batsman-turned commentator Sanjay Manjrekar on Friday revealed that he has actually travelled to Marathwada (mostly a drought-hit region) and visited houses of farmers who were committed suicides as they were unable to pay off their debts and paid off their loans.

The former Mumbai captain clarified that his tweet on Thursday was a light-hearted tweet where he had asked the Mumbai people not to panic as locusts eat the crop, not humans.

"Get a life guys! Last tweet was meant lightly for Mumbai folks living in flats & panicking because of locusts," Manjrekar wrote on Twitter. "Me, insensitive to farmers?? This is a person who travelled to Marathwada & visited houses of farmers who had committed suicide & yes, paid off loans of a few farmer families and want to do so much more. Had never shared this with the public, but had to today, to shut certain toxic people up."

In his stern tweet for 'toxic people', Manjrekar asserted that he himself has helped several farmers but chose never to make it public till now.

After Manjrekar took to Twitter to urge people to avoid panicking amid the current situation surrounding locusts, he received severe criticism on social media as a section of people deemed his tweet insensitive towards farmers. "Ok guys, no need to panic with the locusts. We are not crop," he had tweeted earlier.

Even as the country is battling with a major problem in the form of the Coronavirus pandemic, the arrival of locusts has emerged as a huge problem for the farming sector all over India. The swarm of locusts has been deemed the worst in 27 years. After first attacking fields in Rajasthan, the desert locusts have entered Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.