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Deepika Padukone Who Suffered Two Heartbreaks Gets Appointed As First Mental Heath Ambassador, This Joke Isn’t Funny

Hydra

On World Mental Health Day, while millions of Indians are battling real mental health crises, the government decided our first-ever Mental Health Ambassador shouldn’t be a doctor, a psychologist, or a researcher. No, they gave the title to Bollywood star Deepika Padukone.

Apparently, she once had depression. Specifically, what looked to the world like a really bad breakup. She was even called the “girl with the broken heart” on a talk show.

Deepika Padukone has survived at least two publicly dissected heartbreaks: one with Ranbir Kapoor and another with Siddharth Mallya. She’s admitted that the breakup with Ranbir was especially brutal, so brutal in fact that she had to take a break from dating to focus on herself. Wow, that’s something unusual.

Let that sink in. Her main qualification is the experience most of us would’ve had by the time we’re 25. If heartbreak is the new PhD, then our colleges are useless. We should hand out ambassador badges at every cafe and pub or in the case of Tamil Nadu, a TASMAC.

Here’s a demo of her mental health.

“My Choice” – The Ultimate Hypocrisy

But wait, she also made a video. Remember the “My Choice” manifesto? She stood there, in all her glamorous glory, and told us that her choice was to have sex before marriage, outside marriage, or not at all. To love temporarily. That the symbols of marriage – the ring, the surname- were just “ornaments” that could be replaced.

Powerful, right? A true rebel!

Until she had to go to Abu Dhabi for a tourism ad.

Convenient Activism for Camera-Hungry Causes

And let’s talk about her famous “activism.” Her big, brave moment was a 15-minute silent visit to JNU during protests. No speech, just a photo-op, perfectly timed with the release of her movie Chhapaak.

If she’s such a fearless voice for the people, where has that voice been since? Where was she when the genocide of Hindus in Bangladesh was happening? Or on other issues? Nowhere. Because those causes didn’t come with a movie to promote. That wasn’t solidarity; it was a brilliantly calculated publicity stunt.

And guess what – her dream PM was Rahul Gandhi! A 55-year-old who is being launched by his party every single year as a youth leader is her idea of dream PM?

The Real Experts We Just Ignored

Meanwhile, India has real mental health heroes. There are countless qualified people in the country who have spent their lives building mental health care for the world’s poorest or those fighting to change our mental health laws. These are the people who should be ambassadors. People who understand the science, the medicine, the policy.

But the government looked at them and then looked at a famous actress from a controversial viral video, and decided: Nah, let’s go with the star power.

The Brutal Truth They Don’t Want You to See

This appointment is a slap in the face to every person who suffers from clinical depression, anxiety, or schizophrenia. It tells them that their profound, often debilitating, illness is now represented by someone whose core philosophy, as she herself preached, is that love and commitment are temporary and disposable.
It tells every qualified professional that their decades of study and hard work mean less than a famous face and a well-timed PR move.

The government thinks the people are idiots, maybe. They think we’ll see a celebrity and clap, forgetting that what we actually need are hospitals, trained professionals, and affordable care. This move by the GoI only seems to be a PR move to fix the “bad image” of the ‘star’.

It’s now pointless for the government to withdraw the decision but we have a right to call out this decision.

It’s not just a bad decision. It’s an insult. And we should be furious. And we are furious.

Hydra is a political writer. 

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