Advertisment

Gandhigiri Online Fighting the Menace, Socially!

author-image
DQI Bureau
New Update

Fraught by the day-to-day challenges of professional life, Indian middle class has never spoken on national and social issues in a collective manner. They follow laws. They pay taxes. But never purr against lawmakers, except, sometimes, fairly recently and reluctantly, through ballots. It is this silence of theirs that has allowed politicians and bureaucrats to play with the system in their own way for decades. The rich are pampered and become willing partners; the voice of the poor is too feeble and is crushed through carrots, sticks and most often, both.

Advertisment

And, Life Goes On

Does this mean the middle class is afraid? Or it does not have too much of a grievance? Not really. It is just that the now and the immediate takes precedence, even as the dissent and dissatisfaction remains confined to the drawing room discussions.

Advertisment

This time, it was a little different. Not because suddenly the middle class became aware of its duties and responsbilities and said enough is enough. Or they found an iconic leader like never before. But because, now there is an easy way to expand the drawing room discussion to include a little more participantsa couple of lakhs at last count. All of us are only too familiar with this phenomenon. It is called social networking by the journalists and analysts; it is called Facebook and Twitter by the common people.

In reality, there is not much difference between the earlier movements against corruption and this one that India is still celebrating about. Except that this time, mobilizing opinion has been far easier and faster, and it does not depend where you are. You can be in the drawing room, bed room, office or moving in your car. You can still join India Against Corruption on Facebook and tweet your one-liner about the Kalmadis and Rajas. And at least a few hundred will see it, and if they like it, a few hundred more will see it as retweets and so on. And the message spreads fast. Really fast.

Click on the image to enlarge

Advertisment

Anna Hazare and Lokpal bill may well be the symbolisms. But the real difference this time has been this back-end machinethe extremely familiar internet.

Internet has allowed the yous and mes to raise our voices collectively, without really leaving our comforts, till it gained a critical mass. Then of course, it was the streets and like any other movement, and then the traditional media too joined with its bit.

Advertisment

Anna Hazare was able to ignite the youth to participate in the fight against corruption. Since it was an issue directly related to every individual in the country, it emanated a mass movement. What contributed to the success of the campaign was the use of technological means like TV, mobile, and internet. Finally technology let people join the fight against social maladies like corruption and bribery in a big and better way. They have put their opinion forth, remarks Gaurav Bakshi who closely observed the movement from Jantar Mantar where he was till the fast ended.

Internet, the Battleground

Advertisment

Anna Hazares India Against Corruption campaign was already there on the web for quite some time. But the day Annas fast began, a fresh breed of groups supporting Anna Hazare erupted on the scene in whopping numbers. Individuals from middle class joined the national debate forming several fan clubs and anti-corruption forums on Facebook. Social media became abuzz with discussion forums, messages and support campaigns. From all kind of professionals, there was an influx of support, says Vinita Ananth who runs Vangal, a media research organization that also monitors trends on social media sites.

Facebooks India Against Corruption page (run by the campaign organizers), which had a little less than 20,000 supporters online before the fast-onto-death, saw a steep rise in its supporters during the campaign. Now, there are more than 2 lakh people liking the page. Another Facebook page dedicated to Anna Hazare ( has also close to 1.3 lakh supporters. It really united masses for a cause. Almost every third person is a victim of bribery in India. Facebook and Twitter let us reach out further. Many of our online supporters registered their support through their physical presence at Jantar Mantar, shares Shivendra Singh Chauhan, who managed the social media and online drive for the anti-corruption movement.

Advertisment

Besides, there were other websites that managed to garner support for the campaign. An online campaign site Avaaz managed to get over 6.48 lakh registered support for Anna Hazare.

In 140 characters, #janlokpal, #annahazare and the less gracious #meranetachorhain began to trend on Twitter. In addition, celebrities, politicians, artists, journalists and authors, among others left no stone unturned to support the campaign through their tweets. If you search YouTube, it shows up around 2,000 video results, a lot of which are shot by participants.

Advertisment

Equally mobile phone turned out to be a great medium for seeking support for the anti-corruption campaign. The campaigners set up a phone number (02261550789) on which mobile users can give a missed call to get an auto-generated message requesting them to extend support. Given the fact that therere close to 7 mn mobile users in India, mobile is a potential tool to take your message to the larger chunk of population. A trail of viral messages that did the rounds during the fast is a proof, avers Bakshi.

Standing in the Witness Box

But did this social media buzz translate into more people on the ground? Did the microblogs, emails and messages, that were doing the rounds fairly early on, manage to drive the public opinion? This is a debatable topic as different arguments emerge from different people.

Social medias standalone role in catapulting a revolution has been dismissed by many. A sizeable section of the intelligentsia argues that social networks may have resounded with support from the middle class for the anti-graft campaign but have not really mobilized the movement on grounds. It was more a media hype on TV channels which have lost their credibility after the Radia Tapes incident.

Yet another section of experts has contrary views. It believes that the social media networks influenced many people on ground. The online campaign has exerted a great influence on people inspiring them to join people at Jantar Mantar and in their own cities. And it works, given my own experience. I ran a campaign few months back on Facebook against the corrupt officers who asked me to pay bribe for adopting my stepdaughter. Within 5 days of its launch, it attracted almost 600 people. I also managed to get some 60 people for dharna from my Facebook supporters. So one can not deny the role social media played in mobilizing mass movements, says Bakshi.

In addition, numbers extracted from a survey conducted by Vangal also show how Anna Hazare ruled the web during his fast. According to Vangals analysis of Twitter on April 7th, Anna Hazare trended over 4.4 mn tweets on April 7th from 826,000 unique users. Similarly, there were around 1 mn discussions going on Facebook about Anna Hazare and his anti-corruption stir. Even celebrities and renowned personalities who supported the campaign via twitter had their tweets re-tweeted at significant numbers. Facebook and Twitter were abuzz with activity. Social media has lent a voice to every single person in the world and we are excited to help measure the magnitude and amplification of those voices, says Ananth of Vangal. She also hopes that number of people standing against corruption and in support of Anna Hazare may soon catch up with the pro-democratic calls in the Middle East.

Content engagement on social media networks has given people new wings and empowered them. Their voice now can not remain unheard. I will not say that the movement was successful only because of social media but would certainly add that social media have united people from all walks of life, remarks Chauhan.

Sorry IPL, its Time for IACIndia Against Corruption

Who says Indians dont care about serious issues for cricket? Despite the fact that IPLs new season was beginning on 8th April, Indians especially the middle class which is responsible for TRPs (tele-rating points) kept on standing to show its solidarity for the anti-corruption bill. Serious issues, thus, weigh more on entertainment. The message was loud and clear as one of the placards held by a supporter on that day at Jantar Mantar read Sorry IPL, its time for IACIndia Against Corruption. Joining the league were also TV channels which reported more about the thawing deadlock between the Anna camp and the government over Jan Lokpal Bill than IPLs inauguration match. Interestingly on Twitter, the words like #lokpal, #annahazare, #corruption, #Mera Neta Chor Hai and #Jantar Mantar were ahead of # IPL, which underscores a realitythat Indians love to watch cricket!

Incidentally, one of the top tweets on Hazare is from Indian Premier League match host Gaurav Kapur, @gauravkapur, which read, Anna Hazare wouldnt be fasting if our politicians didnt eat so much.

Its the Beginning

Undeniably, the technology has done its duty in making the mass movement successful, which is the beginning of a new chapter in Indias democracy. Thus, the parochial view that the technology has supported a blackmail campaign by a septuagenarian holds no ground, since the campaign amassed the support of the middle class. The tech-savvy middle class now knows how to utilize technology for the good of all. The middle class has expressed its intent that it will no longer remain aloof from whats happening in the political circles. Little has free India seen anything of this kind. Although there are those who fear that the campaign will set a bad precedent as it provokes people against a democratically elected government, but tradition must change for the betterment of society and country because the constitution is for people and not people are for the

constitution.

Advertisment