THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The crusade against corruption has also found its way to social networking sites and game sites. One such game site ibibo.com, which has launched an anti-corruption flagship game ‘Yes Prime Minister’, has crossed more than half-a-million players.
The success of the game has also caught the attention of Bollywood, with the latest box office hit, Akshaye Khanna-starrer ‘Gali Gali Chor Hai’, a movie about a common man fighting against the corrupt system, getting into a tie-up with the game site.
In the movie, Akshaye Khanna plays the character of ‘Bharat’, who is a common man fighting against corruption. In an innovative step, Bharat, the lead character, also makes an appearance in the Yes Prime Minister game on ibibo.com. The game players can appoint ‘Bharat’ as a Vigilance Commissioner (VC) for their ideal India. This ensures that various departments in the game like Education, Road, Food and Agriculture, Power etc stay free of corruption.
According to Rahul Razdan, president, ibibo.com, ‘’we are once again very happy to associate with a Bollywood movie, especially one that represents the voice of the common man, as ‘Gali Gali Chor Hai’ does. Our game Yes Prime Minister represents the same emotion through the route of social gaming. We have seen youth audiences actively participate in initiatives that address issues like corruption that concern them.’’
The theme of ‘Yes Prime Minister’ is to Build Your India by taking control of various ministries like Education, Infrastructure, National Security, Railways, Sports and Urban Development etc. Like in the real world, each Ministry has various departments under it. Players can contribute to the development of India by assigning development projects in these departments. However, if these development projects are left unguarded, then corruption creeps in and takes over the system. This is where your online friends come to your rescue by role-playing or volunteering as Vigilance Commissioners for your India.
The most interesting part of the game is that you also have your own adalat, where you can even sit in judgment to punish or reward the commonly news-making public figures. They include names like Kalmaddy, Lalit Moody, Rajah, Radiya, Yedduappa and LaLou. The more pro-active a player is in his/her adalat, the more goodwill he/she earns for his India, and proceeds to higher levels in the game.
The core value of Yes Prime Minister is that it helps the common users to express their opinions and angst against the single biggest problem facing India - corruption!