A new film that claims to tell the story of Hindu women who were lured into joining the Islamic State (IS) group has stirred a widespread controversy in India. The Kerala Story - set in the southern state of Kerala - has been criticized by many opposition politicians, with some calling it propaganda and an attempt to destroy religious harmony.
The state government in West Bengal went further by banning the screening of the film, while the Tamil Nadu state government withdrew the film from theatres following protests by Naan Thamilar Katachi and his Seeman chief, of late.
Meanwhile, reacting to this, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma who along with his cabinet colleagues on Thursday after watching the movie said that banning this film will not serve any purpose as this movie is not against any community, it is against terrorism/militancy.
“The film portrays about the conspiracy against the innocent girls of Muslim community also. Whoever, has taken this decision to ban the movie has taken a wrong decision in my opinion. They are under a notion that this film is against Muslim community which is not true. This movie is against ISIS, so they must watch it before banning it, only then they will realize that this movie has nothing to do with religion. This movie has only exposed the brutal design of terrorist organizations which is there in our country in the name of the religion,” said the chief minister before the media.
Hailing the director and actors for coming up with a movie like the ‘Kerala Story’, the chief minister has also mentioned that based on real events, the plot of the story about the lives of the girls from Kerala was very heart-touching and painful.
“This film is all about how terrorism can use a girl as a human bomb, how they are being brainwashed through large-scale drug smuggling and how a normal life of girls turns into ultra-conservative. Today, I along with my cabinet colleagues witnessed these real events through various characters. Hence, I urge the people of Assam to watch this movie once with their family especially with their daughters. I assure this movie will teach us them the lesson of being responsible adults. Through this movie, one can relate about remaining concern about their daughters, whom they are meeting, who are their friends etc. Most importantly, the parents will be enlightened about incidents related to Love Jihad in the state and how it can be countered at the initial stages, thus, I feel this movie must be watched by the people of Assam once with daughters,” suggested the chief minister.
