Akshay Kumar, Twinkle Khanna, their 13-year-old son Aarav and Kangana Ranaut were all over the newspapers on 7 January. Looking pretty, smiling into the cameras, having their ears tweaked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Okay, at least Aarav’s ears were, and then pictures were put up by the proud parents. So where were these Bollywood actors hanging out? At some at-home event at the Prime Minister’s? No. They were part of the International Fleet Review (IFR) at Visakhapatnam. A fleet review which brings together 50 countries, 99 ships, 24 foreign warships and 4,000 sailors. This is India’s largest military exercise, and ergo, the perfect event for Bollywood stars to be present and felicitated it seems.

Attending the event were President Pranab Mukherjee, Modi, Union minister for civil aviation Ashoka Gajapathi Raju, Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and, of course, naval officers. And Kumar, Khanna, their son and Ranaut as part of the Bollywood quota.

Kumar and family and Ranaut attended the inauguration where they were given mementoes and stood on stage with the military and political who’s who of India. The next day Kumar even sailed in the presidential yacht INS Sumitra along with naval chiefs and other VVIPs. In the midst of this, Modi pinched his son’s ears and complimented him on being a good boy and Kumar did what everyone should do at a military event—he took a selfie with Army chief general Dalbir Singh and then tweeted it out.

The IFR, in the defence ministry’s own words in a statement in the Press Information Bureau, “aims at assuring the country of the Indian Navy’s preparedness, high morale and discipline". Which begs the question—what were Bollywood actors doing standing on stage with VVIPs and more importantly, naval officers? Why were they being felicitated by no less that the chief Of Naval staff, admiral R.K. Dhowan? Why were they sailing on board the presidential yacht (yes, Pranabda seems to have a yacht) with VVIPs? When the country goes to war, is Akshay Kumar going to be sailing the seas to protect us with Khanna and Ranaut as back-up? Contrary to what the military thinks, this is not instilling much faith in me.

Our love for all things Bollywood is well-documented. It’s common to see people thronging around actors and actresses—even Shakti Kapoor gets mobbed in India—standing outside Bollywood actors’ homes, screaming and shouting on spotting a star. But when our military is roped in to show the same level of obeisance and obsession, you know that the rot runs deep. It’s almost an extension of the manner in which we hand out Rajya Sabha seats and the perks which go along with these seats to celebrities who don’t even bother to attend Parliament. But do we really need the presence of actors to bring some shine to a military event—that too an event of this scale? It doesn’t speak very well about our respect for the military or the military’s respect for itself.

I don’t blame Kumar, Khanna or Ranaut for attending the event. They’d been invited to do so and it would be a stupid thing to pass up this opportunity. But I still haven’t been able to understand what warranted their making it to the invitee list. That Akshay Kumar recently acted in Airlift is the only tenuous connection between him and the military. What about Ranaut? That she was in Krrish 3, in which Hrithik Roshan flies and, therefore, there’s a connection to the airforce?

It’s bad enough that they were invited to an event of this scale where you are celebrating our fleet and naval officers in front of other countries. What’s worse is that they were allowed to sail with the VVIPs while other sailors, who deserve to be felicitated far more than these Bollywood stars do, can never expect to be extended the same privilege.

The Navy had even sent out a press note calling the duo—Kumar and Ranaut—the brand ambassadors for IFR. After Kumar posted pictures of his son’s ears being tweaked and a veritable storm broke out in the media and social media on why the Kumars of Bollywood were having a weekend picnic at IFR, the defence minister had to indulge in some furious backpedalling. Now a statement has been made by Manohar Parrikar that Kumar and Ranaut “were not brand ambassadors" for the IFR, no contract was signed with the two actors and they were simply invitees to the event.

Parrikar’s statement, if possible, makes their presence at the IFR even more appalling. Because now there’s no legitimate reason for them being treated like naval heroes. Also, it would have been nice if Parrikar had got his story right before the government press release was issued referring to them as “brand ambassadors" and their presence as the “highlight of the maritime show".

That there is an absolute lack of propriety by both our political establishment as well as military establishment is obvious. This is tantamount to Ryan Reynolds, his wife Blake Lively, their daughter, and Scarlet Johannson attending one of the top military events in the US—for no better reason than because they’re Hollywood stars. Not only does this show the low regard that our military has for its own men and women, but also their lack of faith in their own prowess at pulling together an event of this scale without Bollywood pulling in the media.

Dear politicians and military men and women, show some respect for yourselves—and stop being fanboys and fangirls of Bollywood. If we want to see Bollywood stars, we can go to Twitter or watch film award shows—we don’t need to see them at India’s largest military event. The only punishment for this absurdity would be for Parrikar to have his ears tweaked by Modi and a picture tweeted out.

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