Online gaming thrives on Anna Hazare's social cause

After Anna Hazare’s four-day fast in favour of a stronger anti-corruption law, some of the slacktivists—armchair soldiers for a cause online—switched off the lights in their house for ten minutes as part of the Lights Out campaign to supplement the fast, leading to confusion about the cause. Some other users even felt compelled to scribble ‘Mera neta chor hai’ across their forearm and post pictures of this which their friends ‘liked’ in order to denounce corruption.Of course, they couldn't hold a candle to the BlackBerry Messenger-driven candlelight protest in Andheri in which, as a female participant puts it, “some corrupt CEOs were protesters”.
“Online activism makes you feel like you’re doing something for a cause. It’s yuppie to be supporting the movement and saves you the guilt of not being part of a cause you believe in,” says mental health practitioner Harish Shetty. While the online world is a substitute for time and space and provides a sense of identity and belonging, it is also a contributor to the sense of self, he adds. And each comment, like or fan is the sound of applause. Shetty, however, doesn’t believe that online activism necessarily fritters energy or becomes a convenient substitute for joining real marches, vigils and protests.
Hazare’s movement has been subjected to some bizarre support from slacktivists. Several Facebook users vowed to support him in his cause by sacrificing a restaurant meal for a day (yes, believe it). Called the Economic Fast, the page had an earnest participant asking why the day couldn’t be on the weekend instead of the scheduled Monday since more people ate out then. Replied the moderator with a smilie: “I’m not sure people will give up their weekend partying.”
After the government relented to some of Hazare’s demands last week, the quick damage control by the Congress government also left some slacktivists high and dry when a solidarity march planned at Bandra had to be called off. “What should I do with the Gandhi cap?” lamented a public relations executive. In another instance, a well-known spiritual organization sought the expertise of an image management firm to see how a member’s brush with Hazare could be used to benefit the organization.
“We needed something after the World Cup to band us together. It turned out to be Anna Hazare,” says standup comic Sorabh Pant. “It’s also easier to light a candle than to not pay money to get your passport done online,” he points out, adding that nowadays “if you start any movement with the buzzwords ‘anti-corruption’, ‘anti-politician’, ‘janta’, you can get anything going.” True. There are hundreds of Facebook pages dedicated to Anna Hazare and one intrepid Mumbai scriptwriter painfully liked 115 pages to show his support.
Pant has a particular grouse against the BlackBerry messages which he feels were even worse than the online bits. “I got BBM messages giving four different timings for the rally at Azad Maidan, varying between 4 pm, 5 pm, 8.30 pm and one for 7am! Of course I don’t expect everyone to research the Jan Lokpal bill but at least research the timings before sending those messages out,” he says.
According to Praful Vora, convenor of the Jagrut Nagrik Manch, SMSes played a far bigger role in mobilizing people than social networking portals. “A majority of the people who participated in the Azad Maidan march belonged to the labour class—taxi drivers, rickshawallahs and so on,’’ he says, adding that he is not certain if social networking websites will translate into any on-ground protests.
Another ‘social’ cause that Anna Hazare has unknowingly contributed to is called online gaming. Every time you look up Anna Hazare, an ad for a game called ‘Yes Prime Minister’ shows up—a game in which the player gets to be the prime minister of the country and is surrounded by corrupt officials, politicians and diplomats. The PM has to move on to take control of the situation, and the idea, the gaming portal says seriously, is to start a massive cleaning-up exercise online. “The game was launched on April 1. The first five days of the launch saw 50,000 users. After we added the Anna Hazare component on April 5, another 1 lakh people joined in,” says a spokesperson for gaming portal Ibibo.com. Players, by joining in, were happy that they had done their bit against corruption.
Will the surge of ‘patriotism’ last? How long before the Gandhi topi on FB is replaced by pix of pets in tuxedos and couples on holiday? ‘Like’ this if you agree.