“It’s a joke to tell the truth, and it’s the biggest joke in the world,” said Bernard Shaw.
Bhagwant Singh Mann is not a comedian ..? Yes, he is a comedian. It is often said that telling the truth is a joke. The shattering truths told to the Malayalees by people like Kunchan Nambiar also became excellent jokes. In Ukraine, the ruler Selensky was also a comedian, a fighter who has not yet given up on the war with Russia.
“Our rulers are corrupt and do not keep our promises,” the Aam Aadmi Party leader joked to the people. Bhagwant Singh Mann, 48, came to power in Punjab because people thought it was not a comedy. Mann hails from Satoj, a village in Sangarur constituency, which later won two Lok Sabha seats. Although he went to college to study BCom, he attended children’s festivals. He came to cinema through comedy stage shows.
It started in 1993 with a spoof on political corruption. It was very important in Punjab in the nineties. The Punjabis have been paralyzed by decades of terrorism and bloodshed. Society needed an emancipation from it. That is how cultural events increased in the state. The place was used by people including deer. It was during this time that people like Jaspal Batti, who was noticed all over the country for his jokes, grew up.
Mann decided to reach out to the masses in 2011 at the height of his popularity with his stand-up comedy show The Great India Laughter Challenge. The decision came as a shock to those close to him. Manpreet Singh Badal’s PPP candidate lost the election. After the first defeat, he joined the Aam Aadmi Party. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he contested from Sangarur constituency for the first time and won a coup. In 2019, it won with a majority of over one lakh. Mann was the only Aam Aadmi Party MP to win that time.
Controversy erupted in the Lok Sabha in 2016 when Harinder Singh Khalda MP, who was sitting nearby, changed his seat saying he smelled of alcohol. The accusation of being a drunkard was strong again. In 2019, in the presence of Kejriwal, he swore in front of his mother that he would never touch alcohol again.
Deer are very popular in the Malwa region, one of the three major regions of Punjab. The language is spoken in Punjabi. He is a good volleyball player and well versed in sports. As his friend testifies – ‘he does not pretend to be playing like other politicians, he’s really playing.’
In the first phase, the opposition propagated that the Aam Aadmi Party did not have a good leader to rule in Punjab. Through this loophole, there was a campaign that Arvind Kejriwal would become the Chief Minister of Punjab. But the party ended all the rumors by creating a new tradition. The public was given an opportunity to comment on who the CM candidate should be. 21 lakh people commented in the opinion polls. 93% supported Mann. The party’s strategy clicked as the poll results were shown live on channels in Punjab.
Last time too, Bhagwant Singh Mann was the party’s chief ministerial candidate. But the failure to announce that intensified the campaign for Kejriwal. This time it was able to prevent it. Everyone testifies that God has the ability to tell jokes in an instant. People will laugh no matter what you say. Is that still the case? Mann says no.
He said at a recent press conference: ‘Now no one laughs when they see my face. Instead of crying. They express their concerns and demand that their children be protected from drug abuse. ‘These words about Punjab are ridiculously true.
English Summary: Journey of AAP’s Bhagwant Mann: From a stand up comedian to Punjab’s new Chief Minister