New Delhi: West Bengal has decided to ban the movie ‘The Kerala Story’, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said Monday, adding this was done to “avoid incidents of hatred and violence” and to maintain peace in the state.
Banerjee said the movie was made to “humiliate a section of society”. “What is ‘The Kerala Story’?” she told media persons. “It is a distorted story.”
Tamil Nadu multiplexes have also cancelled screenings of the controversial film, which shows how several women from Kerala are allegedly converted and leave their homes to join ISIS fighters.
Meanwhile, producer Vipul Shah has threatened to take legal action against these state governments.
BJP leader Tarun Chugh said Monday that those who were banning the film should watch it with their families. “This is a true story. India’s daughters are being targeted. This is the language of an illness. This illness has to be treated. We need to make our children aware,” he added.
Three days ago at a rally in poll-bound Karnataka, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the movie dealt with a particular kind of terrorism. Modi told the Ballari crowd that one can hear the terrorism of “bombs and guns”, but the “terrorism to hollow out society from within has no sound” — an oblique reference to religious conversion.
He added, “A film made on such terrorism is ‘The Kerala Story’. It is in the news today. It is said ‘The Kerala Story’ takes place in this beautiful state of talented and hard-working people. It exposes this terrorism conspiracy. And to the country’s misfortune, the Congress stands with this terrorism mindset that destroys society. In fact, the Congress has made political deals with such terrorists through the back door. The people of Karnataka need to be very careful of the Congress.”
Meanwhile, the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh has made the film tax-free. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said in a tweeted video Saturday: “The Kerala Story exposes the conspiracy of love jihad, religious conversion and terrorism and brings out its hideous face. The film tells how daughters get entangled in the trap of love jihad in momentary sentimentality and how they are ruined. The film also exposes the design of terrorism. This film makes us aware.”
Also read: The Kerala Story is comically exaggerated propaganda made worse by graphic scenes, poor writing