How Arvind Kejriwal has shed his 'topiwalla' image in Punjab
White conical caps that swarmed the streets of Punjab last year are now hardly visible in the state.
AAP volunteers and leaders would earlier stand out in the crowd with their trademark headgear.
But a Punjab expert touring Malwa told me he saw no cap-wearing workers in the region, home to 68 of the state's 117 constituencies. And it's here where the Aam Aadmi Party's campaign is resonating strongly.
AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal has a knack of refashioning himself. From a tax inspector to an anti-corruption crusader to an amateur politician who delivered a bloody nose to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP and Sonia Gandhi's Congress party in Delhi two years ago.
Unlike his more powerful political contemporaries, he admits when he's wrong. In 2015, he apologised for abruptly terminating his 49-day government the year before. In 2016, Kejriwal was quick to send his trusted lieutenant HS Phoolka to the Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) in Amritsar to tender an apology for publishing a broom on the cover of the booklet featuring the holiest of the Sikh shrines.
 |
| Kejriwal's promise of a clean government is both secular and culture-sensitive. [Photo: Agencies] |
"Punjabis won't allow topiwalas to rule in Punjab." That was a common refrain at rallies of Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal last year. The deputy chief minister portrayed the Aam Aadmi Party's caps as a symbol of potential cultural invasion of the Sikh heartland by outsiders.
Through a 1995 declaration in Moga, the SAD switched from a religion-centric group to a Punjabi party apparently because of rapid changes in demography of the state post-militancy. Still, the Akali leader as well as Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh tried to evoke fears of non-Sikh hegemony over the cradle of the faith.
Across cultures, symbols play a significant role in conveying historical and religious concepts. My expert friend's observation in Malwa suggests Kejriwal and his team received their opponents' message with aplomb.
The AAP leader has seemingly made his own statement by abandoning political topis in the land of religious turbans. A look at the array of candidates Kejriwal has fielded across Punjab also reveals predominance of local flavour. As of now, his appears to be a balanced doctrine.
It's neither theocratic, or fanatic. Rather, it's secular and yet culture-sensitive, with a promise of cleaner government.