Two and a half million dollars. This is the amount of money that internationally-renowned pop singer Rihanna is said to have received from Poetic Justice Foundation (PJF), a Canada-based organization, for tweeting out in support of the ongoing protests by the rich farmers of Punjab. Her tweet has been widely publicized across the world by several publications to portray the Modi government as an anti-farmer sarkar.

As quoted by The Print, an intelligence official believes that a Public Relations firm by the name of Skyrocket facilitated this payment. A Canadian parliamentarian, who supports Sikh separatism, is said to have been involved.

It's not surprising that Rihanna, who has got 101 million followers on Twitter, was given Rs 18 Cr for the tweet. Social media influencers and legendary celebs of her stature get paid a bomb regularly for commercials. What is worrying is that an international conspiracy has clearly been hatched to defame the Indian government and the likes of Rihanna and Greta Thunberg have been drafted in.

Following Rihanna's tweet, the likes of Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar, Akshay Kumar and Kapil Dev have come out in strong defence of India's sovereignty.