Youth of TN, Kerala celebrate anti-saffron victory

“Tamil Nadu and Kerala have among the highest literacy rates in India — I suppose this makes it evident that education enables one to make an informed choice instead of supporting herd mentality. Voters here have proved that politics is, and should be, about a lot more that religion, caste and eating habits,” said Ram Subramaniam, an IT employee residing in Valsaravakkam.

Many have been sharing pop culture-inspired images and status messages such as ‘The South will remember’ and ‘The South will remain an independent kingdom’ that are popular dialogues from the series Game of Thrones.

Nishant M, one of the people who posted this message, said he did so because, “Kerala and Tamil Nadu were neglected during times of need and instigated when not required. Where was the Centre when the floods happened in 2015 and 2018; why did the Sabarimala issue be used to increase the vote bank? I feel better knowing that BJP doesn’t stand a chance of winning here; we can take care of ourselves to a large extent.”

Over 10,000 tweets of an image showing Tamil Nadu being separated from the rest of India by a black walking stick were also making the rounds. “The walking stick is a symbol of E V Ramasamy Periyar. The leader was instrumental in opposing the exploitation and marginalisation of the Dravidian people of South India and the imposition of what he considered Indo-Aryan India,” noted history professor Divya K.

She said, “A reflection of this past could be seen in yesterday’s election verdict, when three out of the four southern states didn’t vote for a particular party. It could be because these states have been feeling marginalised.”

However, this is only the tip of the ice berg, feel some. “Claiming that we’re from Periyar’s land, we believe in self-respect and are literate states may sound nice but I have a feeling we’re going to be in a bigger mess as states without any support from the Centre,” said Durga Nair, a native of Thiruvananthapuram currently residing in Sholinganallur. “Our only hope is if strong state governments emerge but that seems like a question mark too,”she said.