The gala event of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s daughter Niyamat Kaur’s second birthday at his Old Baradari residence in Jalandhar on Saturday evening turned out to be a public spectacle with everyone glued to social media for two days to watch the latest videos.
From Mohammad Sadiq, Hans Raj Hans, Harbhajan Mann, Jasbir Jassi, Ranjit Bawa, Ammy Virk, Nimrat Khaira and Basant Kaur — the leading voices of Punjabi music took to centre stage—many performing, others sharing glimpses online—turning the evening into a live cultural collage. Folk beats, including Sadiq’s evergreen ‘Chhankata’, set the tone, with the Chief Minister and his wife Dr Gurpreet Kaur joining in on the beats of Punjabi boli ‘Gera dede ni mutiyar lambi baanh karke’.
Mann, a former performer, stepped up the stage, took to the mike and thanked all the stars saying, “Ajj tusin sadian khushian dugnian tignian karan aaye ho. Bahut bahut dhanwad (You are here to double, triple our excitement. I thank you all”.
The political presence in the party was just as striking. AAP National Convener Arvind Kejriwal and his family including his daughter Harshita, son-in-law Sambhav Jain and son Pulkit Kejrwal, AAP Punjab in-charge Manish Sisodia, Speaker Kultar Sandhwan, along with almost all ministers and MLAs, underscored the event’s quiet political undertone.
Amid the music and movement, the visual grammar stayed rooted in the party that had a rural Punjabi-themed house at the backdrop during cake-cutting. The butterflies-decked white multi-tier cake had Niyamat’s name in Punjabi as the little one dressed in a pink frock cut it holding the hands of her parents — who wanted to make the occasion momentous in the last year of tenure of the present government.
What remained was more than a family celebration. It was a snapshot of Punjab’s distinctive blend of politics, performance and public optics — all playing out on one stage.
