Celebrating national events regardless of any country should be done with protocols, pride, honor, dignity, and decency - Hemant Patel

 

Celebrating national events regardless of any country should be done with protocols, pride, honor, dignity, and decency. 

In particular, inviting Bollywood actresses to the Independence Day parade just to walk distracts from the whole purpose of the parade. People from 40+ to 80+ go crazy and push each other to go closer to her. They forget everything else. They forget all decency. The whole focus diverts to the actress from our motherland. It's kind of an insult. It sends a wrong message to the youth. The common reason given is that they pull the crowd. Well, if it is true then why do we need to work hard and spend money to pull such a crowd that comes to see the actress, not with the national spirit?

It is a very common excuse that it is free for organizations to bring Bollywood. Well, nothing is free in this world! Someone is paying for it; most often, perhaps with a personal agenda or personal publicity that we do not know. With this argument, would organizations allow it if someone pays to bring terrorists into national events? Sorry for using this extreme example. It is the organization's responsibility to pick their guests carefully. 

Agree that freedom is a joyous moment, but at the same time, we should not forget millions of sacrifices. The events should be used as to pay tribute to those who died for us. If not, people would forget sacrifices and we would not have anyone when a similar situation arises.

Patriotic legends should be invited who can inspire people through their life stories or sacrifices. Only patriotic songs should be allowed at all national events. People enjoy it.  

I think the Consulate General of India and/or the home ministry should issue some recommended or strict guidelines/protocols about celebrating national events. If not, very soon the events would lose their purpose. If you can reach out to CGs across the US or the Home Ministry, please write or forward this message.

Thank you,

Bharat Mataki Jai,

-Hemant Patel

August 05, 2023