Vikas in Gujarat has gone crazy

It all started with Sagar Savaliya, a 20-year-old engineering student posting a photo on Facebook which showed a state government bus with defunct rear tyres and a Gujarati caption saying, “The state transport buses are ours, but after you board them, the responsibility of your safety is yours. Stay back, Vikas has gone crazy”.

Vikas or the development plank, which gave Prime minister Narendra Modi a crucial push in his 2014 campaign for Prime Ministership, has now been turned on its head with this local youth’s tongue-in-cheek social media post saying ‘Vikas Has Gone Crazy’. Sagar is also an active member of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) and is close to its convener Hardik Patel.

Social posts giving Amit Shah sleepless nights

Following the success of the first facebook post, numerous humorous and satirical memes, pictures and videos are flooding the internet right before the Assembly elections in November and it is giving BJP president Amit Shah sleepless nights. People have started sharing photographs or video clips of caved-in roads, decrepit State transport buses, roadside garbage dumps, flooded streets, and figures of swine flu-related deaths, all tagged with the catchy ‘vikas’ punch line.

Gujarat Congress party has also quickly supported the growing phenomenon and is producing hundreds of memes and satirical posts on social media, with the tagline of “Vikas Gaando Thayo Chhe” (Vikas Has Gone Crazy). So much for the Gujarat model of “development.”