Delhi chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the Aam Aadmi Party leader, who had promised to change the rules of the political game and transform the relationship between government and the people, has not only changed politics in India, but has also set a new sartorial trend for politicians and ministers.
The new chief minister’s casual dressing style, which includes a simple pullover or a sports jacket, a muffler and the trademark AAP cap, is now turning into a style statement for the youths.
Following in the footsteps of Kejriwal and his council of ministers, all first-time legislators, turn up for work often wearing the trademark Gandhian cap that they wore during the party’s campaign. All caps with the party message, ‘Main aam aadmi hoon (I am a common man)’ and ‘mujhe
Swaraj chahiye (I want self rule)’ inscribed on it, are worn by workers even as they carry on their daily work.
Looking like the common man in every way, Aam Aadmi Party workers and ministers in jeans, check shirts, jackets, mufflers, pullovers and sneakers have left visitors to the Delhi Secretariat as well as bureaucrats bemused.
During Congress tenure, ministers would always come to work well-dressed wearing safari suits or prince coat with well-polished shoes. Former health minister Dr AK Walia, power minister Haroon Yusuf, transport minister Ramakant Goswami and others ministers used to dress as traditional leaders everyday.
Now visitors to the Secretariat are surprised as none of the ministers fit the stereotype of the traditional minister or politician. Their casual dressing style is just like the man on the street, said many visitors who came to meet them.
The youngest member of Kejriwal’s council of minister, 26-year-old women and child, social welfare and languages minister Rakhi Birla comes to work donning the party cap. Casually dressed in a cotton shalwar-kameez, topped with a Nehru jacket with a scarf around the neck and sneakers on her feet, Birla shares the eighth floor on the Secretariat with transport minister Saurabh Bharadwaj.
Bharadwaj is usually attired in a simple trouser-shirt with a pullover. He is the only minister who rarely wears the party cap to office. Bharadwaj sometimes wears a blazer and likes black polished shoes.
Health minister Satyender Kumar Jain and law minister Somnath Bharati sit on the seventh floor of the Secretariat.
Jain can usually be seen in jeans and shirt with a jacket or overcoat and with the white AAP cap on his head while dealing with officials and people. A party worker and close aide of the minister said Jain does not want to change his dressing style after becoming minister.
Bharati is generally in trousers, shirt and Nehru jacket with black leather shoes on his feet. But why doesn’t he wear the AAP cap? ‘I wear it when I am attending a party meeting. It is a symbol of our party objective,’ Bharati says.
Education minister Manish Sisodhia and SC/ST, employment, development and labour minister Girish Soni too dress as casually as before. Sisodia always wears the same yellowish-coloured jacket, a light check shirt, trousers and cap on his head.
Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s look-simple trouser-shirt with a full-sleeve sweater, mostly blue or maroon, and a grey muffler around his neck have become the symbol of the common man. Many party members imitate his dressing style by wrapping the same coloured scarf around their necks.
Now, BJP workers are adopting a saffron cap on the same pattern as AAP members.
Kejriwal has repeatedly said that the AAP wants to fight against the ‘VIP culture’ and no MLA, minister or officer in Delhi should put a red beacon light on their vehicle, stay in a big bungalow or accept special security.