Why Bhagwant Mann is set to appear in a Discovery Channel documentary

Sources said the shooting of the documentary started shooting around six months ago, well before the current controversy over a video engulfed Mann a couple of months ago and triggered a serious religious and political backlash against the CM, putting him on the defensive.

In June, an Akal Takht panel declared Mann “Guru Dokhi (anti-Guru)” and “Khalsa Panth virodhi (against the Sikh religious community)” after forensic reports commissioned by it claimed the video was authentic and not AI-generated. Mann has consistently denied he is the person seen in the footage. The AAP has produced two forensic reports which it claims establish that the person in the video was not Mann. The controversy continued to leave the AAP hamstrung as the Gurgaon Police subsequently arrested three men following a forensic expert’s allegation that two senior Punjab Police officers paid him Rs 10 lakh to “tailor” a forensic report on the video as per their needs. Later, a Gurgaon court separately granted regular bail to all three citing lack of evidence.

Rather than presenting him merely as a CM facing a controversy, the documentary allows the AAP to reinforce the broader narrative on Mann, presenting him as a man from rural Punjab who rose in the entertainment industry to establish himself as a top stand-up comedian before switching to politics and becoming the party’s face in Parliament and subsequently in Punjab.

Mann’s play

With the documentary, Mann is seeking to shift the political narrative back to his origins and political journey, far removed from the immediate political troubles. The documentary focuses on his childhood, his rise as a performer, his entry into politics, his two terms in the Lok Sabha, and his eventual ascent to the Punjab CM’s chair. In recent months, the CM has stepped up his mass contact programmes, including Lok Milni events, where grievance redress has increasingly been accompanied by politically significant announcements and efforts to project him as an accessible leader.

“He is the first Chief Minister of Punjab set to appear on Discovery Channel,” said Lok Sabha MP and AAP spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang. “The CM’s journey is inspirational. From a comedian to a politician and then CM with a strong mandate in the Assembly elections. This is huge. Punjab has had so many leaders. There are many like Partap Singh Bajwa and Sukhbir Singh Badal, who have been around but could not become the CM. Mann sahib has been able to do it.”

The Opposition, however, remains unimpressed. Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) spokesperson Parambans Singh Romana said, “We used to watch wild animals on Discovery Channel. Now, our CM is appearing on the channel. He is a Guru Dokhi. He was looking for something to keep him afloat. That is why this trick to appear on a TV channel now.”