A fusillade of crises—political, economic, social—assail Bhagwant Mann’s AAP government in Punjab. How he can arrest the state’s descent into chaos
It was just a year ago that Bhagwant Mann and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) stormed to power in Punjab with a landslide victory after the electorate turned its back on the state’s two most powerful parties—the Congress and the Akali Dal (SAD)—that had taken turns to rule the frontline state since it came into existence in 1966. The 49-year-old Mann, like the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, was a popular comedian before he turned to politics. His promise of badlav, or change, along with the freshness that AAP brought with it, had wowed voters who were disillusioned with the shenanigans of the state’s seasoned parties.
