Vinod Khanna, as minister, tried bridging gap between India, Pakistan through films

Vinod Khanna was elected as the BJP MP from Gurdaspur constituency in Punjab.

New Delhi | Updated: April 27, 2017 04:44 PM IST

3 min read

Vinod Khanna with then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi during the 2014 Lok Sabha campaign in Pathankot (Express archive)

Veteran actor and producer Vinod Khanna, who also had a successful stint in politics, passed away at the age of 70 earlier Thursday. He was reportedly battling from cancer. Along with Shatrughan Sinha, Khanna was one of the first Bollywood actors to be associated with the BJP in the 90s.

Khanna joined the BJP in 1997, and contested and won elections from the Gurdaspur constituency in Punjab in the Lok Sabha polls in 1998. In 1999, he won the same seat again. He was elevated to the position of the Union Minister of Culture and Tourism in July 2002. Six months later, in January 2003, he was the Minister of State for the Ministry of External Affairs, until May 2004. He was re-elected from his Gurdaspur constituency in 2004.

As MoS for External Affairs, Khanna focused on bridging the gap between India and Pakistan through the film industry and was in agreement with “reciprocal bus dimplomacy” idea floated by then President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf. The actor also led delegation level talks with the then Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Sha’ath where India tabled the proposition of greater cooperation at the United Nations, especially with the issue of terrorism.

However, he lost his seat in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, only to be elected again from his old constituency in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls during the Narendra Modi wave. A report in 2009 of the civil society organisation National Social Watch (NSW) showed that Khanna was among the celebrity MPs whose attendance fared poorly in the lower house of Parliament. In the entire session, he asked the government just four questions and twice took part in discussions.

Khanna has worked on building a dozen major and minor bridges on river Beas, Ravi and Ujh that connected Gurdaspur with the rest of Punjab and provided free heart surgeries for poor patients, according to a 2016 report in FirstPost.

The Tribune reported in November 2015 that Congress members planned to hold protests in three main towns of Khanna’s constituency — Batala, Gurdaspur and Pathankot against his absence. “Ever since Khanna was re-elected for the fourth term, he has gone on a privileged leave, salary and all perks included,” former Congress minister Raman Bhalla said.

“It’s just that I don’t have any PR agency and I am more concerned about my constituency and political work…Acting is my bread and butter, so it’s not something that I pursue as much as I should because this was the only thing that I was trained and now I have come to politics and that’s a great responsibility. We are looking at 300 million people and their needs; so you have to be constantly in touch. So that takes all our time,” Khanna had said in an interview to DNA in 2014.

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