Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal has come to the defence of Bollywood actor Salman Khan.
The RJD on Monday said Salman, whose alleged conversation with Aishwarya Rai four years ago where he brags about his underworld links was released recently, was being harassed and dubbed anti-national by vested interest just because he is a Muslim.
The RJD national spokesperson Shivanand Tiwari told rediff.com: "It is simple to dub a Muslim anti-national and accuse him of being hand in glove with the underworld to tarnish his image and defame him."
Tiwari said that the evidence against Salman is a four-year-old audiotape, the contents of which are more like a drunken person's empty boasts.
"Even if it is proved to be Salman's voice, he deserves to be punished, but certainly it is not a case of sedition," said Tiwari.
Tiwari said the large-scale protests engineered against Salman and his just-released Hindi film is a planned move to vitiate communal harmony.