Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on April 30 strongly criticised The Kerala Story, stating that by portraying the state as the capital of terrorism, the film was promoting the Sangh Parivar’s propaganda. He added that Kerala was actually the land of secularism.
“Propaganda films and targeting of Muslim community in them should be seen as attempts by Sangh forces to reap benefits in vote bank politics. Using love jihad — that was dismissed as baseless by investigating agencies, Union home ministry and courts — as the central theme of the film is part of such a calculated move. Former junior Union home minister G. Kishan Reddy had stated in Parliament that there is nothing called ‘love jihad’. It is used in the films only to defame the state in front of the world. Sangh Parivar forces are trying to destroy the atmosphere of religious and communal harmony prevailing in the state.”
Warning that the government would take legal steps against anti-social moves to try and create rift in the society in the name of creative freedom, the CM added that it was wrong to justify such people. He also referred to the film’s trailer and said that it stated a blatant lie that as many as 32,000 girls from Kerala had been converted to Islam and made to join Islamic State (IS).