Power cut! Kill mosquitoes instead; How ‘Indira Cut’ turned protest into a mobile game in Kerala

Kollam: “I came to know about the game to play during power cuts after watching a reel on Instagram. I was curious when I saw the image of the Chief Minister standing with a lit candle. Now, whenever the power goes out, I play the game on my phone,” says Abhijith, a resident of Mampuzha in Kollam.

As times change, the mediums and language of protest are changing too. Amid frequent power outages, one of the most notable forms of digital-age protest is the ‘Indira Cut’ online mobile game launched by the Palakkad district committee of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI).

Players can win by swatting mosquitoes that come to extinguish the candlelight in the darkness. Points are awarded based on the number of mosquitoes killed. The satirical game has already been played by 5.5 lakh people. Anyone can play it by visiting www.indiracut.in. Another game, ‘Power Cut in 18 Seconds,’ was also launched, in which players have to find a candle and matchbox during a power cut.

The aim is to overcome the limitations of conventional methods of spreading ideas, says R. Jayadevan, DYFI Palakkad district secretary. Against the backdrop of the 2019 Hong Kong protests, the game ‘Liberate Hong Kong’ had similarly allowed players to experience the perspective of a street protester.

In 2026, the game ‘Operation Epic Fury, Straight to Hell,’ released in the US to mock the American military action against Iran, also attracted considerable attention. The BJP, meanwhile, has also been active in digital-age protests through its selfie campaign during power cuts.