There is an increasing demand for the caps—made of cheap fibre or cloth—priced at Rs 10 each. The cap with “I am Anna” written on it, similar to that one used by Hazare, was hurriedly manufactured by some traders in and around the national capital to make some quick bucks during the protest period.
Akshay Awasti, a sales man of Hindustan Cap House in Old Delhi’s Chandini Chowk, said he was struggling to keep up with a ten-fold increase in demand since the protests began.
“Every day we make around 10,000 caps and supplies here as there is huge demand,” he said. Usually, sale of caps were high only during election campaigns among Congress supporters and on national festivals, but Anna’s fasting has boosted the sales and profits, too—Awasti makes up to Rs 6 on each cap.
Gandhiji’s trademark cap is said to date from his time in jail in South Africa, where “black prisoners” were forced to wear them to segregate from other prisoners.
