Hazare's fan club grows by leaps and bounds on Facebook, Twitter
Atul Thakur, TNN | Apr 8, 2011, 02.01am IST
NEW DELHI: Like a chain reaction Anna Hazare's campaign is engulfing the entire nation and people have taken to the streets to express their solidarity for the veteran social activist. The online community is equally abuzz or perhaps more so, as Anna's fan club is growing at an exponential rate.
With over 65,000 Facebook fans who have expressed their liking for him, the septuagenarian has caused a furor in Twitter and the tweets referring to his campaign were among the world's most trending tweets listed in Twitter's 'breaking globally' trends. Questions like — 'Anna Hazare who is this?'— are commonplace on Twitter? He is trending high in India, the Gulf countries, the UK and the US — all countries with a considerable Indian expat population.
Avaaz, an international online community that has over 7.5 million members, has also started a campaign to support Anna Hazare. Started in 2007, the community operates by organizing protests through the internet.
Anna Hazare is being considered as the second mahatma by many of its followers, who are pleased with almost everything being done by him, be it his statement on Sharad Pawar's resignation from the GOM to tackle graft or his disapproval of the truce offered by the central government. While some saw the minister's resignation as the first sign of victory, the majority preferred to retweet his statement on Pawar's resignation saying, "What's so great if Sharad Pawar quits? Another corrupt minister will replace him".
In an inflation-hit country where corruption and scams have broken the faith of the Indian middle class, the Gandhian is seen as the last ray of hope and the online community is urging family and friends to support his campaign by observing fasts or gathering at protest points across various Indian cities.
Facebook has become the medium to mobilize crowds at the country's urban centers and people are posting the locations on the walls of various pages created to support the anti-corruption campaign. Facebook has become the directory of protest points across the country and there are several people who have expressed their commitment to join the protests on the designated dates.
For these youngsters, YouTube is serving as the medium to track the fast, as videos or news clippings related to the campaign have so far been viewed by over 90,000 people. It's not just the participation in protest and candle light marches that is engaging his supporters, people are also coming up with innovative ideas to put pressure on the government.
The India Against Corruption page on facebook has posted the email IDs of the president, prime minister and several other dignitaries and has urged the people of the country to write mails in support of the campaign.
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