New Delhi: ‘Angry Hanuman’, an iconic depiction of the Hindu deity designed by Karan Acharya 2015, has been very popular all over the country for many years. Now that Aam Aadmi Party national convener Arvind Kejriwal is all set to become Delhi Chief Minister for the third consecutive time, there is an updated version of the Hindu deity doing the rounds.

It can be recalled that, before the elections, Chief Minister-elect Arvind Kejriwal had appeared on a news show, where he was asked if he knew the ‘Hanuman Chalisa’. Affirming that he knew it by-heart and calling himself a ‘kattar Hanuman bhakt’, he began to chant the same.

After AAP’s resounding win in the Delhi Assembly elections, Kejriwal thanked Lord Hanuman. “This is the day of Lord Hanuman, who has blessed the people of Delhi. We pray that Hanuman Ji keeps showing the right path to us so that we continue to serve people for the next five years,” he said.

Even before casting his vote on February 8, Kejriwal was seen visiting a Hanuman temple.

A happy version of the Hindu deity, designed by satirist and former journalist Akash Banerjee, has gained popularity after Kejriwal recited the Hanuman Chalisa on TV. Banerjee’s version of Lord Hanuman wears a smile on his face and is printed on T-shirts that are available for sale on kadakmerch.com/thedeshbhakt.

“Time to rediscover Hanuman as we have always known and loved him…Happy Hanuman is our tribute to the most loyal and trusted devotee of Lord Rama. Let’s bring the smiles back!” the product description reads.

One of the T-shirts was purchased by NDTV journalist Sanket Upadhyay, who posted a picture of himself in the ‘Happy Hanuman’ jersey. “Time to pull out my smiling hanuman T-shirt. Since Bajrang Bali is so much in the news today, [sic]” Sanket wrote in his tweet on February 11. This was retweeted by Banerjee.

It may be noted that, when ‘Angry Hanuman’ first came out, some had criticised it for symbolising hypermasculine Hindutva and aggressive.