Pinarayi calls 'love jihad'-based 'The Kerala Story' a product of Sangh Parivar's lie factory

Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has come out strongly against the yet-to-be-released Hindi film, 'The Kerala Story', calling it a 'Sangh Parivar propaganda movie made to create communal divide and demonise Kerala.' "The movie is the product of the Sangh Parivar's lie factory," Pinarayi Vijayan said in a Facebook post on Sunday.

"From the trailer of the movie it can be gathered that the movie has taken up the Sangh Parivar propaganda that positions an uncompromisingly secular land like Kerala as a hotbed of terrorism," the Chief Minister said. "These propaganda films and the othering of Muslims in these films should be seen in the context of the various attempts being made by Sangh Parivar to squeeze out some political gains in Kerala," the Chief Minister said.

The trailer of the movie, scheduled to release on May 5, was out recently. The film is touted as the story of hundreds of Kerala girls, mostly Hindus, who were brainwashed, converted, recruited into IS and taken to places like Afghanistan and Syria where IS claims to be waging a holy war. It is said that the film makes the unverified and hugely dubious claim that over 32,000 Malayali girls were recruited into IS.

It is a film that takes the still unconfirmed phenomenon of 'love jihad' to a whole new level. "To make 'love jihad', an idea that was rejected by investigating agencies, courts and even the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, the central theme of the film smacks of a conspiracy," Pinarayi said.

"The then Union minister of state for home, G Kishan Reddy, had told the Parliament that there was no such thing called 'love jihad'. Kishan Reddy is still a union minister. Even then, if they have made 'love jihad' the central premise of the movie, it betrays the Sangh Parivar's desperation to show Kerala in a poor light in front of the world," the Chief Minister said.

Pinarayi said that the Sangh Parivar was attempting to destroy communal harmony in Kerala and plant the seeds of communalism.

There was a reason why propaganda films are being used, he said. "The Parivar's political designs have not worked in Kerala as it has in other parts of the country. That is why they are trying to get their agenda of divisive policies into Kerala through fake narratives," he said.

It is also not right to employ the exalted notion of freedom of expression to shield those who attempt to divide people on communal lines, he said. "Freedom of expression is not a licence to propagate lies, communalise a land and divide its people," Pinarayi said.