New Delhi: Salman Khan might one day make a great politician. Maybe even the 'best'. You have to admit, the way the actor smoothly sidestepped a ticklish political issue at a press conference in Gujarat on Tuesday, it was like watching a pro at work.
Salman isn't usually your ambassador for diplomacy. With a volatile temper and a tendency to get into murky controversies despite his reputation of otherwise being an overall 'nice guy', you wouldn't think Salman would know how to take on political questions in the turf of a man favoured to be the next Prime Minister of India.
"You think Modi is best candidate for you, you vote for him. I live in Bandra I will vote for Priya Dutt, Baba Siddiqui. You vote for the best man in your constituency," said the actor in Ahmedabad. Dutt is the sister of Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt and a Congress politician standing from Bandra. Salman and Sanjay are great friends.
Salman was in Gujarat to promote his upcoming film 'Jai Ho' and met Chief Minister Narendra Modi over lunch. He repeatedly insisted that Modi is a 'good' man but people should vote for the man they thought would best represent them.
"May the best man win," he said to wildly cheering fans chanting 'Jai Ho'.
However, not many of Modi's hardcore fans on Facebook and Twitter latched on to the fact that Salman wasn't exactly endorsing the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate. In fact, far from it. He stated outright that he will vote for the Congress. 'Do Dabangg saath saath' read a post by a Salman fan on Twitter. 'Salman for Modi', read another.
But those who realised that the 'Dabangg' star was sidestepping the thorny issue with great charm, playing the crowd to evoke a response and avoiding getting dragged into a controversy, discussed at length on Twitter and Facebook what it meant for the ongoing 'Modi for PM' campaign amongst hardcore supporters of the BJP leader.
"Salman Khan is Smart. He says 'Modi is a Good Man'. Then he says 'Best Man should be PM'. Modi is grinning without realising what Salman did," said a user Nisha Agarwal on IBNLive's Facebook page.
A user who tweets from the handle @syedzaheer2002 said "best thing is, in front of him he said he will vote for priya dutt and baba siddiqui both are from congress.....BHAI ROCKS."
The reaction from politicians was predictably guarded. "A filmstar can voice his personal opinion, its a democracy. Final decision is of the nation," said Salman Khurshid.
Salman cushioned his opinion by saying, quite disarmingly, that he will get trapped if he answered questions about politics - a subject he has a limited knowledge of. Then asked the crowd if they thought Modi was the best man for the post of India's PM. "I live in Mumbai, I'm an outsider. My opinion does not count, yours do," he said.
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