Virtual tug-of-war gaining momentum

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Battle of words over the Mullaperiyar dam is gaining momentum in virtual world as well, as handful of communities are being formed in the social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook to evoke response among the society towards potential threat of a dam collapse, if happens can result in havoc in the state.‘Save Mullaperiyar Dam’, a Facebook community formed against the backdrop of the insecurity looming over the dam, has got more than 36,000 members in its fold, while ‘Raise Your Voice Against a Big Disaster -Mullaperiyar Dam’ has got a towering 33,811 as members. The statistics is burgeoning with every passing day. Besides posts which bear anxiety, panic and concerns, numerous photos and documentary videos are also being uploaded in the sites. Some illustrations aired flak at the politicians, who are trying to hijack the protest for their political mileage.One of the photo posted by John Alex, has the superimposed image of Ajmal Kasab and Tamil firebrand leader Vaiko, nourished by a caption advocating the viewers to decide what is the difference between the two. Irked by the lack of response from the Malayalam Super Stars towards the cause, many of the members have challenged them to release the films to a non-Malayali audience and see whether it will stay tall in the box office. The members appreciated Reema Kallingal and Justice V R Krishna Iyer, who had turned up for the Mullaperiyar solidarity campaign, organised at Marine Drive in Kochi. Director Renjit too received kudos after he had declined to attend the state film awards function on the wake of the impending danger at Mullaperiyar. The anxiety over the security of the state surfaced in Twitter also. They were highly critical of the approach adopted by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa. But the stand-alone tweet came from actor Khushbu Sunder. She advised theMalayalis not to discuss the issue and enhance fear of people.“Please stop living in fear psychosis!.Too much of talk on Mullaperiyar will create more fear. We genuinely care for Kerala”, she tweeted. Some of the tweets carried a tint of Tamil Nadu’s rage on the issue. One read, ”Ok,Lets build the dam. But on the TN side”. As the Mullaperiyar issue is poised to scale another level,it can be assured that the tug-of-war will continue unperturbed for long, both in the real and the virtual world.