'Kerala Story' amplifies Sangh Parivar's polarisation agenda: Vijayan

Thiruvananthapuram: The film "The Kerala Story" is taking up the Sangh Parivar agenda of maligning the state of Kerala by projecting it as a centre of religious extremism, the south Indian state's Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan slammed the film's creators on Sunday. The CM reminded that the claims of the 'Love Jihad' movement in Kerala had been rejected by courts, probe agencies and even the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, PTI reported.

The trailer of the controversial film, which made it to headlines last year when it released its teaser, deliberately aims to create communal polarization and spread hate propaganda against the state. Although the courts, agencies and Centre are rejecting the issue of 'Love Jihad, ' the movie uses it as its main premise to humiliate the state in front of the world, Vijayan said.

Vijayan continued that such propaganda films, as well as the alienation of Muslims depicted in them, should be seen as Sangh Parivar's effort to gain political advantage in the state, where BJP is doing its best to root itself. Vijayan accused Sangh Parivar of attempting to destroy the religious harmony in the state by "sowing the poisonous seeds of communalism".

The controversial film's trailer caused a storm in the public sphere as well as on social media. Both fronts in Kerala, the ruling CPI(M) as well as the Congress, slammed the movie accusing it of spewing venom in society, saying that freedom of expression does not grant a license to do so.

The trailer of the movie, directed by Sudipto Sen, claims that around 32,000 women were allegedly missing from Kerala. It claims that they were falsely converted, got radicalised and were deployed in terror missions in India and foreign countries.