Jantar Mantar protests inspire video games on police, protesters and democracy

Jantar Mantar protests are being coded into video games. Several multiplayer games titled “Jantar Mantar Chalo” “Bhaag Neha Bhaag”, and "Jantar Mantar to Jail" have captured the attention of young Indians, allowing players to navigate virtual crowds, dodge tear‑gas and water‑cannon attacks, and collect “democracy” coins while racing toward New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar. Some of these games can be played as cops as well, beating up protesters indiscriminately.

The game “Jantar Mantar Chalo” was built in just 1.5 days by a developer named Kushwah, who works at a cloud gaming company. He told PTI he came up with the idea "out of sarcasm" while watching the news. He works at a cloud gaming company and is a tech enthusiast. He created the game using AI and a little bit of his knowledge of game development. It allows the player to choose between protesters and police personnel.

"I made it as a sarcastic take, but now that it is getting so much attention, I am looking at updating it further," he said.

The game uses elements from the recent Jantar Mantar protests. The bigger crowd you gather, the more powerful you become. The police instruction is "Break kafilas with the lathi, lift leaders onto the bus. Watch out for big crowds!" Police can also deploy tear gas against protesters, detain them in buses, and drop them at a faraway location. This reduces the size of the crowd and reduces the power of protesters.

Another arcade-style game is “Bhaag Neha Bhaag” developed by 30-year-old Anav Nayar and his brother Akshay Nayar of Wizloop Studios. It's an endless runner like Subway Surfers, not a two-sided strategy game. Inspired by Neha Bora, president of the All India Students' Association (AISA), who was repeatedly detained while trying to reach Jantar Mantar, only to be back on the streets the next morning. Special collectables like "democracy/D coins" were added to give a political meaning to the objective. If you're caught, the game ends with a "Pakdi gayi" message.

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“I initially tried to build the game myself but couldn't get it to work the way I wanted to. So I took my brother's help, and he developed the code for the game. We named it 'Bhaag Neha Bhaag', inspired by one of our favourite German films, Run Lola Run", said Nayar to PTI. He added that they were planning updates to represent Neha respectfully.

The Nayar brothers made another arcade game, "Jantar Mantar to Jail", in which players can choose between CJP leaders, Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das, and Ashutosh Ranka. Players must dodge falling jail bars and police personnel in orange kurtas

while catching floating coins labelled "Accountability" and "Democracy" to score points.

Another game features a caricature resembling the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar called “Gyanu”. It is an anonymous parody titled "Digital Tapli". "Tapli" is Hindi slang for a slap or strike. The core mechanic is giving him a tapli, slapping/hitting him. The game also features a state-wise viral leaderboard, which is supposedly being led by Assam.

These games emerge in the backdrop of protests that started against the voter roll controversy and the alleged discrepancies in the functioning of the apex polling body of India.