In the wake of the ghastly Pahalgam terror attack, in which 26 innocent lives were lost, the country is shaken—and so is Twitter.
But while the nation waits for its elected representatives to act, a parallel universe on social media has seemingly elected Shah Rukh Khan as Prime Minister, Ranbir Kapoor as Home Minister, and Kareena Kapoor as Finance Minister. The only missing piece is Karan Johar as the Minister of Good Vibes.
Why so Bollywood-obsessed? Each disaster, each catastrophe, and oh, then there’s “SRK, where’s your statement?”, “Akshay, where’s the tweet?”, “Kareena, where’s the defence ministry budget?” like the next security council is sitting in Mannat’s drawing room.
Never mind that real-life government people are having security talks and taking firm action. While Bollywood celebrities have done what they’re supposed to: mourned, denounced the brutality, and pleaded for national cohesion.
Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Akshay Kumar—everybody weighed in, with words that replicated the country’s anguish and fury. But still, it seems, unless they make a war declaration from their Instagram posts, it won’t do.
Let’s be plain: actors aren’t policymakers. Their role is to entertain, not to send troops. If you desire action, ask the people in power, not the people at the silver screen. So, when tragedy does strike again, perhaps let Bollywood grieve with the nation instead of insisting on running it.
After all, the only thing more tragic than the attack itself is having a movie star head the Cabinet Committee on Security. Lights, camera, action—leave the actual action to the government.
