Early this month, when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came up with the list of new ministers, it raised many eyebrows down south and triggered a fresh controversy in Tamil Nadu. The profile of L Murugan, the only minister who was not a member of Parliament, showed that he hailed from “Kongu Nadu”, a commonly used name for parts of western Tamil Nadu.
While this sparked a social-media controversy, this was followed by an article in a local newspaper quoting unconfirmed sources with a flashy headline that claimed that “Tamil Nadu to be divided, Kongu Nadu to be created”. Adding