Earlier this week, on 8th November, a video from Surat city started circulating online. The viral footage showed an State Transport bus going in reverse on an overbridge. It was claimed that the incident occurred on the Kalakunj overbridge in Surat City’s suburb, Varachha, which had supposedly opened for traffic on the same day (Wednesday). It was further claimed that a construction defect in the bridge forced the bus to drive in reverse as it couldn’t make a turn.
Subsequently, Vipul Suhagiya, AAP’s corporator in Surat Municipal Corporation, previously arrested for assaulting a hospital employee, shared the video of the incident. He wrote in Gujarati, “This is the view of our illiterate leaders, on the new Kalakunj Chikuwadi Bridge which was opened today. S.T. Bus could not take a turn, had to take it in reverse, these illiterate leaders have ruined the country, even though the people pay taxes and taxes, Kamalam (BJP Headquarter) becomes a luxury..”
Quoting his tweet, AAP’s regional president Isudan Gadhvi took a jibe at 156 MLAs of BJP in the state. He sarcastically stated that even though everything is running on Ram bharose, people should salute their art of taking votes by fooling the people.
Later, Gopal Italia, former state president of AAP called BJP leaders ‘illiterate’. He tweeted, “Today this new flyover was inaugurated in Surat at the hands of an illiterate BJP minister. The illiterate BJP people of the fourth pass leader have built such a huge bridge that buses/big SUVs cannot take a turn to get down. These BJP people are so uneducated that they don’t care about anything anymore.”
Taking a cue from AAP’s claims, some YouTube channels also peddled similar claims. A channel named ‘Jamawat’, notorious for carrying misleading news, posted the same video on its X handle. It wrote ‘Har shaakh pe ullu baitha hai’ adding ‘New bridge inaugurated in Surat, but from where would the bus take turn ?’
Regional daily, Gujarat Samachar also jumped in later and posted a video questioning the planning of the municipality.
However, it turned out that the claims were nothing more than propaganda and malicious twisting of things, which was soon busted by netizens. Netizens highlighted the fact that the overbridge, where the bus got stuck, was not the part of the main bridge but it was the extension bridge that had not been designed for large vehicles.
In fact, a signboard installed there notes that the bridge is open only for smaller vehicular traffic. It read, “Entry prohibited for vehicles exceeding 7.5 meters in length.” Many netizens shared pictures of these signboards in response to the baseless allegations made by the AAP leaders and some media outlets.
Clearing the air on AAP’s claims, the Municipal Corporation clarified that there is a ban on the entry of vehicles exceeding the length of more than 7.5 meters on this bridge and boards have also been installed there.
Interestingly, Gujarat Samachar, which had raised the question by sharing the video the day before, also covered the incident in the print edition the following day. The report mentioned that despite the ban on long vehicles, two buses still reached the spot, prompting the errant drivers to drive the buses in reverse.
Simply put, there was no fault or negligence in the construction of the Kalakunj bridge in Surat’s Varachha suburb. The extension bridge has been built to ease small vehicular traffic, while the large vehicles would have to use the main bridge only. Since the bridge was inaugurated just a few hours earlier, the bus drivers did not notice the sign boards and drove on that route, however later on, they realised their mistake and drove their buses in reverse.
Nonetheless, without verifying the matter or knowing the facts of the incident, the AAP leaders and media portals, who claim to champion the cause of journalism, started running allegations that the construction of the newly inaugurated bridge was flawed blaming the Municipality for misdeed. However, netizens exposed the propaganda in time by laying bare the truth of their claims.