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US pop star Rihanna, whose single tweet catapulted the months-long farmers' protest into the global spotlight, was allegedly paid $2.5 million (Rs 18 crore) by a Public Relations firm with alleged Khalistani links, The Print reported.

The sources also believe that the toolkit shared by climate activist Greta Thunberg was “fed to her” as part of a “larger conspiracy to create disharmony” in India. Individuals such as Mo Dhaliwal, Marina Patterson, who worked as a relationship manager in PR firms, Anita Lal, director of World Sikh Organisation in Canada, and Canadian MP Jagmeet Singh.

Mo Dhaliwal, the founder of the Canada-based Poetic Justice Foundation (PJF) that also created the controversial ‘toolkit’ tweeted by Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, is one of the Directors of the PR firm in question - Skyrocket.

According to The Print report, PJF played a “vital role” in “starting a global campaign”, with backing from “political leaders and activists based out of Canada”.

The PJF, which describes itself as an organisation that “challenges structures of oppression and discrimination through intersectional grassroots advocacy”, claims on its website that “currently we are most actively involved in the #FarmersProtest”, the report added.

On Twitter, the organisation has been actively tweeting about the farmers protest with the hashtag “AskIndiaWhy”, which has also spawned a website by the same name (the hashtag finds reference in the revised toolkit tweeted by Thunberg Wednesday).