A 48-year-old turbaned man, Kulbir Singh Sandhu, is wandering on the streets of Punjab campaigning for the Aam Aadmi Party. He is travelling across villages, streaming political rallies and showcasing the limited development that rural Punjab has seen. These rallies are streamed particularly for the NRIs sitting abroad, through social media. What is spectacular is that Sandhu has made it a point to specially come for the campaigning from Canada.
Not just him, a large number of NRI volunteers have been campaigning for the AAP in Punjab. Ashamed by how Punjab has become synonymous to the drug menace, these NRIs are doing their bit in “ensuring a better future for the state.”
“People are forgetting the state’s stellar contribution to the freedom struggle, the Indian Army and its role in ushering in the Green Revolution. Debt-ridden farmers are dying here every day, religion is disrespected, drugs are eating away our youth, and we do not have good education and health facilities for the poor,” Sandhu says.
A truck driver in Toronto, Sandhu came to India on December 14 and since the past 1½ months, he has taken part in special NRI campaigns where the AAP takes these NRIs to villages in a “special bus”. “Apart from my own schedule, I go wherever I am asked to by the party candidate,” he says.
Along with AAP, Sandhu and other NRI volunteers run a door to door campaign urging people to give Arvind Kejriwal “at least one chance”.
