Anand Mahindra slammed for video of Gujaratis doing garba in water: ‘Romanticising crippled infra’

Anand Mahindra, usually a social media whiz, seems to have missed the mark with his latest post on X. The billionaire industrialist shared a video of people doing garba in flood-hit Gujarat, where at least 47 people have lost their lives in rainfall-related incidents.

Anand Mahindra’s video shows a group of people dancing in knee-deep water. He did not mention where in Gujarat the video was filmed, but praised the people for doing garba amid severe waterlogging.

“Gujarat aur Garba. Ek gazab ka rishta…Unstoppable (Gujarat and garba, an amazing relationship),” wrote the chairman of Mahindra Group while sharing the video on the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter).

Take a look at his post below:

Social media reacts

At a time when the country’s crippling infrastructure is coming under more and more scrutiny, Mahindra’s post did not sit well with a lot of people. In the last few weeks alone, several social media users have complained about their hard-earned cars getting damaged in heavy rainfall, there have been instances of people getting electrocuted on waterlogged roads across the country, including Gujarat, and traffic in rainfall-hit areas has been affected, inconveniencing commuters.

(Also read: Vadodara man loses ₹50 lakh Audi, other cars to heavy rain: ‘Nothing left to live for’)

Social media has been filled with complaints from people tagging local, state and national authorities for assistance in rainfall-related incidents. In the midst of this, the sight of a billionaire posting about a waterlogged road in positive light did not go over well.

“This is how billionaires make Indians feel they are one of them: Romanticise crippled infra of the country,” wrote one X user.

“This shows the country is not developing,” an X user opined. “Normalizing corruption, mediocrity and the expectations of a better quality of life,” another said.

Some people also praised the video and applauded the group for showing resilience in times of natural calamities.

However, the group was also slammed for dancing on waterlogged streets as it is fraught with danger. “This is actually plain stupidity from citizens. Imagine a loose livewire getting in the water. There have been multiple deaths reported due to electrocution during the recent floods in Gujarat. An unfortunate incident happened today in Pune as well. Citizens need to take caution,” a social media user said.