'Sangh Parivar propaganda': Vijayan slams 'The Kerala Story'

Thiruvananthapuram, April 30 (IANS) Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday slammed upcoming Hindi film "The Kerala Story", which is based on "Love Jihad", terming it part of "Sangh Parivar propaganda" aimed at political gains.

Vijayan, in a Facebook post on Sunday, said that the movie was created to demonise Kerala and to communally divide the state.

"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 hot bed of terrorists," he wrote.

He said that propaganda films and the "othering" of Muslims in such movies should be seen in the context of the various attempts being made by Sangh Parivar to squeeze out some political gains in Kerala.

The film, according to its trailer, depicts hundreds of girls - mainly Hindu girls who were allegedly brainwashed, converted and recruited to Islamic State and taken to places like Afghanistan and Syria. As per the trailer, as many as 32,000 Hindu girls were converted and taken to the IS dens.

Vijayan said: "The central theme of the movie, Love Jihad is a conspiracy which has been rejected by the investigating agencies, the court and even the Union Home Ministry."

"The then Union Minister of State for Home G. Kishan Reddy had informed Parliament that there was no 'love jihad'. Kishan Reddy is still a Union Minister. Even then if they have made 'love jihad' the central theme of the movie, it betrays the Sangh Parivar's desperation to show Kerala in a poor light in front of the world."

He said that there was a reason for using propaganda films as "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".

Vijayan said that freedom of expression was not a license to propagate lies, communalise a land, and divide its people.

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