FigHt breaks out over gujarat’s vikas

Congress’ anti-BJP catch-line for Gujarat, “Vikas gando thayo chhe (Development has gone crazy)” on social media has made the saffron party to sit up and hit back recently with over a four-minute video clip on social media with a counter-tagline: “Hun chu vikas, hun chu Gujarat (I am development, I am Gujarat)”.

It is learnt that “Vikas gando thayo chhe” was the creation of a frustrated 20-year-old civil engineering Patidar student from Ahmadabad, Sagar Savalia. The Gujarat Congress’ IT cell immediately picked it up. Savalia was allegedly the victim of the police lathi-charge at Hardik Patel’s rally in Ahmadabad on 25 August 2015. He was beaten by the police though he was not a member of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti then.

A day before the second anniversary of the Patidar rally, Savalia posted on his Facebook page a picture of a state transport bus resting on its broken axle with its wheels running backwards, with the tagline: “Vikas gando thayo chhe.” It became an instant hit.

As it got circulated across the country, the BJP’s IT cell countered it with massive force on social media. This resulted in the recent counter tagline, “Hun chu vikas, hun chu Gujarat” in which a youth in a subtle way ridicules a press reporter and his friend in a barber shop as they were running down “Dictator Modi”. Ultimately, the two were impressed by his arguments about the PM’s great and bold decisions and many other noteworthy social and development issues. They asked him his name. Smiling, he said, “Hun chu vikas, hun chu Gujarat.”