Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday slammed the makers of ‘The Kerala Story’ film, saying they were taking up the Sangh Parivar propaganda of projecting the state as a centre of religious extremism by raising the issue of ‘love jihad’ — a concept rejected by the courts, probe agencies and even the Union Home Ministry.
Vijayan said that the trailer of the Hindi film, at first glance, appears to be “deliberately produced” with the alleged aim of creating communal polarisation and spreading hate propaganda against the state.
He said that despite the issue of ‘love jihad’ being rejected by probe agencies, courts and the MHA, it was being raised in connection with Kerala as the main premise of the film only to humiliate the state in front of the world.
The CM, in a statement, said that such propaganda films and the alienation of Muslims depicted in them should be viewed in the context of Sangh Parivar’s efforts to gain political advantage in Kerala.
He also accused the Sangh Parivar of trying to destroy the religious harmony in the state by “sowing the poisonous seeds of communalism”. A couple of days ago, both the ruling CPI(M) in Kerala and the opposition Congress hit out at the controversial upcoming movie ‘The Kerala Story’, saying freedom of expression was not a licence to spew venom in society, and the film was an attempt to destroy the communal harmony of the state.
‘The Kerala Story’, written and directed by Sudipto Sen, is portrayed as “unearthing” the events behind “approximately 32,000 women” allegedly going missing in the southern state. The film falsely claims they converted, got radicalised and were deployed in terror missions in India and the world.
