It started with one man’s call to support his fight against corruption. Three months later, the Anna Hazare led India Against Corruption (IAC) campaign has received the support of over 76 lakh people from across the country.
On April 5, when Hazare started his fast-unto-death at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, organisers requested the public to give a missed call on 022-61550789 to register their support. “By June 28, we got over one crore missed calls of which 76.83 lakh were unique missed calls, all different numbers and no repetition,” said Kunal Dixit of Netcore Solutions Private Limited, who is handling this scheme for the IAC.
“This data clearly proves that Lokpal movement is not limited to just a few thousand people. The whole country is behind us,” said Arvind Kejriwal, RTI activist, IAC member and one of the civil society representatives in the Lokpal bill’s joint drafting committee.
According to data, the highest number of missed calls came from the 2G scam-embroiled Tamil Nadu (including Puducherry) region with 16.41 lakh calls followed by Maharashtra-Goa region (including Mumbai) with 15.15 lakh. Missed calls came from as far as Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli.
A Delhi based auto-driver, Balwant Singh said, “I couldn’t go to Annaji’s fast but I certainly can give a missed call to express my support and encouragement. I regularly give a missed call on that number and also encourage my friends and relatives to follow me.”
