Salman Khan will enthuse public for Olympics
The Indian Olympic Association's choice of Bollywood star Salman Khan as the country's goodwill ambassador for the upcoming Games in Rio is a good one, for the simple reason that it achieves its objectives most effectively. The principle function of the goodwill ambassador is to arouse public enthusiasm for the games as well as cheer the players. In both cases, Khan stands unparalleled. Few can match his charm, his popularity, and his appeal to the masses. Some sections of the elite commentariat may turn up their noses at Khan and dismiss his work as too pedestrian for their tastes. But, while they are free to critique his cinema, the Olympics isn't a film festival.
No, it is a sports event —and, hence, a sportsperson should have been picked for the job is what some other critics have argued, including Olympic bronze medal winning wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt who is part of the Indian delegation to Rio and fired the opening salvo. While there is nothing to prevent a sportsperson from becoming the ambassador, there is also no rule that prohibits other celebrities either. After all, it's not as if Khan will be playing for India that he needs strong sporting credentials. Khan's job is to attract public attention, and he is more than qualified for the purpose. Besides, few other sportspersons have the kind of mass following that Khan enjoys.
Some cricket legends like Sachin Tendulkar perhaps may compare with Khan's popularity but that brings up another set of problems: Cricket is not an Olympic sport and, more importantly, appointing a cricketer as ambassador defeats the whole point of having one to draw public attention to games other than cricket. This is not to suggest by any means that there are no sportspersons whose achievements match those of Khan's — that would be wrong, mean-spirited and pointless — but only that Khan (and film stars in general) has greater public reach than celebrities from other fields (be it sports, business, science etc). If one still needs more proof to demolish the sportspersons-only argument against Khan, one only needs to parse through the long list of A-list sportspersons who have supported the actor. From cricketing giant Sourav Ganguly to chess great Vishwanathan Anand to boxing champion Mary Kom, each one of them have underlined the fact that the public attention that Khan brings to the table is an undisputed good for the world of sports outside cricket.
Perhaps the most trivial argument that has been leveled at Khan and his ambassadorial appointment is that all of it is a publicity stunt for the actor's upcoming film where he plays the role of a boxer. Apart from the fact that a star of Khan's stature hardly needs the Olympic tag to sell his film tickets, even if one were to assume the worst-case scenario, there is still nothing fundamentally wrong with the actor earning some brownie points out of this appointment. Moreover, it is still the Indian Olympics team that stands to gain more than Khan.