The Kerala Story: Tharoor joins row amid furore over '32,000 women joined ISIS' claim
2 min read . Updated: 30 Apr 2023, 10:30 PM IST
PremiumKerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan also opposed the movie ahead of its release and said the film is propagating the Sangh Parivaar propaganda by bringing up the ‘love Jihad’ issues despite MHA stating declining the claim
The political leaders and ministers in Kerala have weighed in on opposing a movie 'The Kerala Story' which claims to have uncovered the ‘hidden truth’. Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor have cited ‘Sangh propaganda’ and false claims in opposing the movie respectively.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor took to micro-blogging site Twitter and posted ‘It may be *your* Kerala story. It is not *our* Kerala story’ along with a poster of the movie .
The controversial movie's poster features a woman who has a rather distraught expression with tears in her eyes. She is wearing what looks like a burqa, an overall covering worn especially by women who practice Islam. The Kerala Story movie poster says ‘uncovering the truth that was kept hidden’.
The movie makers have claimed that around 32,000 “missing women" in the state converted, got radicalised and were deployed in terror missions in India and the world.
See Tharoor's tweet here
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.
Further, the Kerala Congress has urged the state government not to give screening permission for the film. The grand old party in Kerala noted that the film was “full of lies and painted the Muslim community in bad light."
Leader of the Opposition in Kerala legislative assembly V D Satheesan said the film was part of a vicious agenda to sow seeds of hatred and religious animosity but the people will stand united to defeat such forces.
“The Kerala Story", starring Adah Sharma, is set to hit the screen on May 5. The film, written and directed by Sudipto Sen, is portrayed as "unearthing" the events behind "approximately 32,000 women" allegedly going missing in Kerala.
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.