Kerala’s ruling Left Democratic Front and the Opposition United Democratic front have vehemently opposed the impending release of the contentious commercial film The Kerala Story.
They have raised cautionary red flags, warning that the “acutely divisive” movie’s screening could divide society along sectarian lines.
The film purportedly centres on the questionable claim that the Islamic State (IS) found Kerala a fertile ground for recruiting impressionable youth, an alleged 32,000 men and women conscripts, to its terrorist cause during the 2016-18 period.
The cinema’s trailers released on the Internet appeared to indicate that its central theme revolved around a fictional retelling of the defection of four radicalised Kerala women and their husbands to the IS in Khoisan province in Afghanistan in 2016.
Cultural Affairs Minister Saji Cherian called for a boycott of the “divisive” film. He said the government would explore legal options to stall its screening.
Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan asked the government whether it had the nerve to ban the film. He said the movie, if released, would give the far-right Sangh Parivar forces ammunition to drive a wedge between communities.
Ruling front and Opposition youth organisations echoed similar sentiments and launched aggressive online campaigns against the film. The outfits alleged the film stoked Islamophobia to further the Sangh Parivar’s “Hindu nationalist cause”.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State unit has not officially reacted to the controversy. However, in a tweet in November last, BJP national leader Amit Malaviya indicated that “powerful forces” in Kerala “did not want the truth to come out” and the movie’s teaser had “run into rough weather”.
The Kerala Police had concluded that the possible lure of IS’s surreal online propaganda impelled the desertion of the four couples from Kerala. They found at least three partners were novice converts to Islam. The police did not rule out the role of local agent provocateurs.
The women surrendered to the Afghanistan government with their children in 2019 following the death of their husbands in combat. They are currently held in a Kabul prison.
A purported video of the women seeking release surfaced on social media in 2020 and triggered a debate about their possible repatriation.
Subsequently, the Afghanistan government confirmed their detention. It informed the Indian administration that the four women were the only IS activists of Indian nationality in their custody in Kabul prison.
