Anna hazare vs Irom Sharmila
Corruption is an issue of which people everywhere are victims. There are other human right related problems which go unnoticed when corruption takes the headlines. IromSharmila has been fasting for many years. Media had never projected her plight for justice except in very few occasions. At the same time the India Against Corruption Movement led by Anna Hazare got immense support from the public through large scale media coverage. The article is about how social media reacted to both these issues by undertaking the facebook pages of “FREE IROM SHARMILA!!!!! REPEAL THE AFSPA!!!!!” and “India Against Corruption”.people began to show more interest in the case of IromSharmila after the movement of Anna Hazare. It is found that Social Media started playing its role in this Human Right movement too.
We have witnessed certain movements which started online transforming into an all-consuming fire like protest in different parts of the world in the recent past. The revolution 2.0, the Arab Springs, the Occupy Wall Street movement etc., are some of the examples. In India too we had some unique movements. Anna Hazare’s campaign against corruption is a good example. Now there is another interesting scenario seen in the Social Media.People have started joining a movement online (which later turned out to be a protest in the streets too) for supporting Irom Sharmila who is on a fast for the last 11 years. There are many commonalities between these two movements. There are many clear differences too. There are movements which gain momentum from its very moment of beginning because of the rich resources available for it. At the same time there are other movements which after a very long time of survival leave no glimpse of its existence even. why the Anna Hazare movement gained popularity at once and his fasting ended on the 13th day, whereas the Movement by Irom Sharmila couldn’t do that magic even after the completion of 11 years.
When we go for a comparison of both these movements in their online versions based on the data available from the facebook pages .Both the online movements used almost the same styles for organizing people. But the Anna Hazare movement gained momentum at once and the number of members, comments, shares and likes were skyrocketed in fractions of seconds. The campaign for IromSharmila on the other hand doesn’t have that ‘mass’ appeal. When there were more than 10,000 likes and 5,000 comments for many posts in the India Against Corruption page, the number of likes and comments for the posts in the Free Irom Sharmila page were less than 20. It shows the less interest of the people in Irom Sharmila’s cause. It gives an understanding that corruption is a problem for all, whereas AFSPA is just a problem of some of the North Eastern states or Kashmir. Many comments were there in the page of Anna about the importance of the India Against Corruption movement.
Team Anna’s’ main target groups were the youth who are heavy users of the new media and the Indian middle class. When a team focused on the campaign through the traditional media, another team spread the message through the new media including the social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, Orkut etc. The campaigners understood the power of peer pressure on teenagers and youth and acted accordingly in such a way that there were only “YES” responses for the event’s invitation which appeared in the Facebook pages of the youth. All these efforts helped in successfully mobilizing thousands of youth across the country and even abroad. The result was that even a month after the thirteen days long fast of Anna Hazare, the Jan Lokpal Bill remained the headline in leading national dailies. The Facebook page titled “India Against Corruption” and the twitter account “@janlokpal” played very significant roles in keeping followers updated and motivated.
Though both were mainly one-man shows the support for Anna’s cause was because of the national interest on the subject of corruption. Again, there is clear evidence from the comments made in the IAC page that it is not an apolitical movement but which has a hidden agenda of targeting the Congress Party and its leaders. Most of the comments were against this particular party. The language used in the page was aggressive and there were comments in vulgar language to those who opposed the Anna Hazare movement. But the language and operating style of the IromSharmila page are peaceful and calm. They didn’t want to hurt anyone. They want not just the achievement of the goal but that to be achieved in a peaceful way. They know at the end what matters is the human relationships. That’s why IromSharmila made a lamentation when the Jan Karawan was attacked and the people were not allowed to meet her.
The India Against Corruption movement demonstrates the opportunities offered by social media for large-scale mobilization of social movements.The movements which can generate the resources well can gain easy publicity and popularity and that in turn may lead to the achievement of the goals of the movement. On the other hand those movements which are not able to mobilize the resources will fade away from the minds of the people.
Neethu A. K.
2nd Mass Communication
