New Delhi: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan slammed the upcoming Hindi movie ‘The Kerala Story’, which is based on the “Love Jihad”, calling it ‘Sangh Parivar propaganda’ meant to promote political goals. In a Facebook post on Sunday, Vijayan said that the purpose of the film was to demonise Kerala and to divide the state along racial lines.

“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.

According to him, propaganda films and the “othering” of Muslims in such films should be seen in regard to the numerous strategies used by Sangh Parivar to gain some political clout in Kerala.

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 added.

He also went on to say,”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”.

Meanwhile, Shashi Tharoor, a senior member of the Congress, criticised the producers of The Kerala Story on Sunday, hours after the state’s chief minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, claimed that the movie depicts the state as a hotbed of religious extremism by bringing up the subject of “love jihad”.

It may be *your* Kerala story. It is not *our* Kerala story. pic.twitter.com/Y9PTWrNZuL

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) April 30, 2023

In the trailer, hundreds of girls—mostly Hindu girls—are shown being brainwashed, converted, and recruited by the Islamic State before being transported to countries like Afghanistan and Syria. Up to 32,000 Hindu girls were reportedly converted and brought to the IS dens, according to the trailer.