Recently we were witness to a song release function for an upcoming big-budget film at Rajasthan. It was shocking to see the three heroes being brought to the stage in an open-top military vehicle, accompanied by a marching contingent of BSF soldiers, as if they had actually won a war for India.
Additionally, two of the three heroes (technically civilians) were wearing military fatigues, which itself is illegal. Why are the paramilitary forces being used to promote a jingoistic film? Earlier too, the Chief of the Army Staff and the Defence Minister attended a function and sang paeans to a war-themed film, which was the debut outing of the grandson of the greatest movie icon India has ever produced.
Is this what our armed forces have been reduced to, mere props and publicity agents for supposedly ‘deshbhakt’ film-makers? In no other country do we see this; it is a matter of utter shame that government machinery and our defence forces are being misused in this manner.
