Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) visited Bihar on Wednesday. He met Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and called for a ‘BJP-mukt Bharat’ and much more. While he said plenty for us to hear, we had just one thing to see, a South Indian Cowboy. KCR had a cowboy-type hat on!

It looked odd to see a South Indian politician in simple white khadi with a cowboy hat seated between two Bihar leaders, one of whom happens to be the son of India’s most famous cowboy, Lalu Prasad Yadav.

Does fashion in politics matter? Yes, it does. A leader’s fashion sense is serious business. How we dress affects how we perceive ourselves and others. And to a large extent, electoral politics is about perception rather than policy.

Even Gandhiji was aware of the power visual imagery holds and its impact. Late British PM Winston Churchill called Gandhiji a ‘half-naked fakir.’ It was the same year Gandhiji was invited for tea with Queen Mary and King George V at Buckingham Palace. Gandhiji wore his usual attire — dhoti with loincloth draped over his naked torso. After the meeting, as Gandhiji was walking out of the Palace, someone asked him if he thought he was “wearing enough.” Gandhiji replied, “But the King was wearing enough for both of us.”

Gandhiji wanted to send a message of ‘solidarity with the poor,’ but he maintained this sartorial choice even when he travelled abroad because he knew its impact on creating a perception among the Westerners.

The…