Identity isn't a spelling test: Brittas to Tharoor over 'Keralam' remarks

New Delhi: A gentle glide from "Kerala" to "Keralam" will not trigger an identity extinction event, CPI(M) leader John Brittas said on Wednesday while replying to Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who asked what happens to terms such as "Keralite" and "Keralan" now that the state has been renamed.

"Identity isn't a spelling test," Brittas, a Rajya Sabha MP, said in an X post.

Tagging the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha MP, Brittas said he should "step away from the microbe-mineral anxiety," and quipped that the "rest of us continue to stay Malayalee or Mallu" as they have been for decades.

"We've survived quite happily as Malayalees in polite society and Mallus among friends (and in JNU, where it was equal parts tease and term of endearment). A gentle glide from 'Kerala' to 'Keralam' is not going to trigger an identity extinction event," Brittas said on X.

He stressed that someone from Andhra is still Telugu, one from Tamil Nadu still Tamilian, and people from West Bengal remain Bengalis.

"No one panicked, coined 'Teluguite,' or set Twitter on fire," Brittas said.

"So if 'Keralam' makes you itch to invent new demonyms, feel free to clutch 'Keralite'. The rest of us will continue with Malayalee/Mallu, as we have for decades," he said, adding, "Because identity isn't a spelling test. It's what survives when you're ordering biryani in Delhi and someone yells, 'Mallu da!' -- with a grin."

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday approved the Kerala government's proposal to change the state's name to Keralam. The decision was taken at the first Cabinet meeting held at Seva Teerth, the new PMO complex.

In an X post on Tuesday, Tharoor had a witty take on Kerala's name change, asking what happens now to the terms "Keralite" and "Keralan" for the "denizens" of the new "Keralam".

In a lighter vein, Tharoor had said that "Keralamite" sounds like a microbe and "Keralamian" like a rare earth mineral, and added that the Kerala Chief Minister's Office might want to launch a competition for new terms resulting from this electoral zeal.