The ten fishermen, who were rescued from the Maldivian waters to Vishakapatnam, were brought back by the Indian Coast Guard (ICG).
After these fishermen drifted into the sea near Tamil Nadu’s Kanyakumari from Thengapatnam on April 16, the engine of their boat failed, and they were left adrift, with no assistance whatsoever, for a period of five days.
Finally, on April 26, an MV Furious, a bulk carrier, was able to safely extricate the fishermen.
Ministry of Defence in a statement said that out of them, eight belong to Vizhinjam in Kerala while two are from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu. Preliminary medical examination of all these fishermen was carried out on-board the Coast Guard ship and all were found to be in healthy state.
The Ministry added that the fishermen were rescued by MV Furious from Maldives search and rescue region in coordination with Indian Coast Guard Maritime Rescue Coordination Center on 26th April. Based on information received at this Centre, Indian Coast Guard Ship Vigraha was dispatched to embark these rescued fishermen from the merchant vessel transiting off Campbell Bay in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Earlier in January, the Indian Coast Guards helped conducted a rescue operation of almost 14 Indian fishermen, who following a malfunction of their fishing vessel, was left stuck in the Solomon Islands.
These 14 fishermen embarked on a journey on November 27, where nine of them were from Kerala and five of them from Tamil Nadu.
The recently released film, “The Kerala Story,” directed by Sudipto Sen, has caused a stir across the country. The film, which sheds light on the reality of what has happened in the state of Kerala, popularly known as “God’s own country,” is being shown with tight security measures in place.
From the moment the film was announced, it has been met with controversy. Islamic organizations and Leftists have strongly opposed it, claiming that it is a propaganda movie. They have gone as far as denying that any incidents of the sort depicted in the film have taken place in Kerala.
It is a well-known fact that political parties and their leaders often adjust their stance to suit their interests, especially when it comes to retaining or gaining minority votes. This tactic has been commonly employed by the leaders of the Leftist and Congress parties in Kerala, including those who have served as Chief Ministers.
On July 24th, 2010, the then Chief Minister of Kerala, VS Atchutanandan, made a statement during a press meet, which grabbed national attention. The CM openly criticized the radical outfit Popular Front of India (PFI), which had been involved in terror-related activities across Kerala. Atchutanandan did not hold back and accused the PFI of trying to make Kerala a Muslim state. He even went as far as to claim that their ultimate agenda was to achieve this goal within the next 20 years.
Oommen Chandi, then Congress CM, on June 25th, 2012, made a startling revelation in the assembly. In a report placed on the floor of the house, it was announced that a total of 7,713 individuals had converted to Islam between 2006 and 2012. Of this number, 2,667 were young women, out of which 2,195 were Hindus, while the rest were Christians. This revelation raised many eyebrows and led to heated debates in the assembly and the state as a whole.
The current Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan, who belongs to the same party as the former CM VS Achuthanandan, has taken a dual stance on the issue of radical Islamic groups in the state. The CM has faced criticism for his handling of the issue both before and after the release of the controversial film, “The Kerala Story”.
When the Bishop Mar Joseph Kallarangatt of the Pala diocese of the Syro-Malabar Church alleged an increase in “Love Jihad” cases targeting Christian boys and girls in Kerala, the CM defended his government against the allegations. However, in a press conference on September 22, 2022, he made a shocking statement revealing that “100 Malayalees have joined the extremist group ISIS.”
There have been reports beside Government Reports, and cases in the state of Kerala that confirm the existence of a mass conversion factory that aims to trap and lure young non-Muslim women into Islam. According to these reports, Madrasas are mushrooming in the state and are serving as breeding grounds for radical elements and jihadists.
According to a few news portals, the involvement of ISIS in Kerala can be traced back to 2013. Since then, it has been reported that the terror group has been expanding its roots through the Islamic schools run in the state.
The startling stories of young men and women from the state joining ISIS came to light in 2016. It was reported that several young men from Kerala had travelled to Syria to join the extremist group. Additionally, it was found that four young girls from the state had been converted and made to join the terrorist group.
Four young women from Kerala, who had allegedly joined the Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISKP) between 2016 and 2018 along with their husbands, were arrested and detained in Afghanistan. They were later interviewed by Indian investigative agencies in Kabul in 2019, along with their children. The women were identified as Sonia Sebastian, also known as Ayisha; Raffeala; Merrin Jacob, also known as Mariyam; and Nimisha, also known as Fathima Isa. The news of their arrest was confirmed after a video was released on a website in 2020.
The women were allegedly part of a larger group of individuals from Kerala who had joined ISKP. They had traveled to Afghanistan via Iran, with the help of local recruiters. Reports suggest that the women were radicalized through social media and other online platforms, and were motivated by the ideology of the Islamic State.
The threat of Islamic extremism in the Indian state of Kerala has been a growing concern in recent years. The UN released a report in 2020 warning of the significant number of ISIL Indian affiliate operatives in the state. The report also revealed that the al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) operates from Afghanistan with members from Bangladesh, India, Myanmar and Pakistan.
In response to the UN report, the Indian Home Ministry stated that the report was factually incorrect and that the government had taken necessary action to curb extremist elements. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had filed cases against operatives, and the government was aware of the presence of groups such as LeT, Islamic State and Islamic State(Khorasan).
However, there have been reports of a mass conversion factory operating in the state to lure non-Muslims, particularly young women, into Islam. Investigative reports and cases confirm the existence of this factory and suggest that it is being used as a breeding ground for radical elements.
A sting operation conducted by an English news agency revealed the agenda of the radical Islamic outfit Popular Front of India (PFI). The reporter asked PFI founding member Ahmed Shareef if their aim was to convert India into an Islamic state, to which he responded affirmatively and confessed to how they funded such activities through Hawala transactions. Another PFI office bearer also confessed to converting women from other religions to Islam.
In 2021, a key leader of PFI stated that India should start diplomatic talks with the Taliban and not view them with prejudice. These developments have raised concerns about the growing influence of radical Islamic outfits in Kerala and the need for stronger measures to counter their activities.
Several news agencies have carried out investigations into the funding and teachings of extremist groups in Kerala’s Madrasas. According to some reports, Wahhabism, an extreme radical form of Islam, is being preached in these Madrasas and is being funded by petrodollar-rich countries in the Middle East through the use of Hawala. Furthermore, videos of Zakir Naik, a fugitive Jihadi preacher, are allegedly being screened to students, with the aim of producing more like him and ultimately achieving the goal of establishing an Islamic State.
These findings have caused concern over national security, leading to multiple NIA raids across India. In September 2022, the Government of India responded to this threat by banning the Popular Front of India (PFI) and its affiliated organizations, which operate under different aliases to hide their true identities.
The ban was implemented following a series of NIA raids in various parts of India, which uncovered evidence of the PFI’s involvement in extremist activities and links to terrorism. The organization has been accused of promoting violent jihad and funding terrorist organizations such as ISIS and al-Qaeda.
The PFI has denied these allegations, stating that they are a peaceful organization that promotes social justice and human rights. However, the government’s decision to ban the organization suggests that there is significant evidence to support these accusations.
The ban on the PFI has been met with mixed reactions, with some praising the government’s action to protect national security, while others have criticized the ban as an attack on freedom of expression and association. Nevertheless, the government has maintained that the PFI poses a serious threat to national security and must be dealt with accordingly.
So, no matter how much the naysayers call The Kerala Story a propaganda film, it is based on a reality that is threatening India’s national security.
(Pradeep G is the State Secretary of BJP Tamil Nadu’s IT-DM Cell.)
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally
Following threats from pro-terror outfits and fringe groups, the Tamil Nadu government is alleged to have imposed an unofficial ban on the screening of the film The Kerala Story.
The Kerala Story is an Indian Hindi-language film directed by Sudipto Sen and produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah. The plot follows the story of a group of women from Kerala who converted to Islam and joined the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Political parties in Kerala alleged that the movie promotes the Sangh Parivar’s agenda.
On May 6, police in Chennai and Coimbatore arrested over 300 people from various Muslim organizations, including the Social Democratic Party (SDPI) and Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam (TMMK), who were planning to protest the screening of the movie “The Kerala Story.”
SDPI, TMMK, and a few other Muslim organisations gathered at the theatres with black flags to protest the screening of the film, which they claim promotes hatred against minorities.They were holding placards and shouting slogans in front of movie theatres, demanding that the film be banned.
When the film was released on Friday at the popular Brookefields Mall in Coimbatore, activists marched to the theatres and demanded the release be stopped. According to police sources, all of the activists were removed from the theatre and charged under two IPC sections.
Meanwhile, another Tamil fringe group, the Naam Tamilar party, announced on Saturday that they would lay siege to movie theatres screening the movie ‘The Kerala Story’ across the state. The party’s co-ordinator, who previously demanded the release of an Islamic terrorist arrested in connection with the Coimbatore bombing, has now stated that he will not allow the screening of The Kerala Story in Tamil Nadu in order to appease the Muslim community.
Bookings for the film online ticketing platforms like Book My Show have been withdrawn for cinemas in Tamil Nadu.
MK Stalin bowed down to pressure from pro-Terrorist organisations such as the SDPI and Naam Tamilar Katchi and is believed to have unofficially banned the film.
In light of this, Tamil Nadu’s multiplexes have cancelled shows of the controversial film ‘The Kerala Story’ owing to law & order issues. Despite the fact that the film was playing to packed houses, multiplexes have claimed that attendance was low in order to appease the DMK government.
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally
To see what is in front of one’s nose is a constant struggle – George Orwell
This is the opening quote of the 2012 American documentary Losing Our Sons. The documentary is about two American families (one black and another white) who lost their sons to radical Islam. The film shows how Carl Bledsoe, born and raised in an African-American Baptist family, becomes Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad after getting indoctrinated at Tennessee State University which leads him to Yemen on a fake Somalian passport and returns to USA to kill as many army personnel as possible with his jihad resulting in the 2009 Little Rock recruiting office shooting killing Private William Long. The film was made to educate Americans about the threat of radical Islam and how this was being wilfully ignored by the political leadership, authorities and the media in the name of political correctness.
If Losing Our Sons was about America losing its sons to Islam, The Kerala Story is about India losing her daughters to the threat that is right in front of our nose.
Very few works on paper and celluloid have the privilege of exploding into a controversy even before hitting the market. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, Taslima Nasrin’s autobiographical works especially Dwikhandito, Geert Wilders’ documentary Fitna, Terrorists Among Us: Jihad in America directed by Steven Emerson, Vivek Agnihotri’s The Kashmir Files, and now joining the league is Sudipto Sen’s The Kerala Story. And what’s common in all the above works? They hold a mirror to the radical face of Islam.
The Kerala Story minces no words in calling out the threat looming over the God’s own country. And in doing so, the film does feel like it is forcing the message down one’s throat. The dialogues on the conflict between Islamic and non-Islamic theology feel forced. The characterisation of Asifa Ba lacks nuance. The markers in different scenes are in your face and terms like “global agenda” does dumb the film down. But that doesn’t discount the reality. By being overtly straightforward with no subtlety, Sudipto Sen slaps on the face of the blissfully-ignorant and culturally-delinked Hindu, grabs the person by the collar and shouts aloud “Wake up! Before it is too late!”
Speaking of subtlety and propaganda, it is important to mention Pa. Ranjith’s film Kaala starring Superstar Rajinikanth which was an out and out propaganda against Hindus and Hinduism. The markers like “Manu Realty”, “H. Jara towards the end of the movie”, “the blue, red, black symbolizing Neo-Ambedkarism, Communism, Periyarism respectively”, portraying Ganesh Chathurthi visarjan in bad light, the antagonization of Lord Ram, were celebrated by the same bunch of reviewers calling The Kerala Story a “no-nuance propaganda”.
Scene from KaalaSingara Chennai, no longer a dream – H. JARA reads the hoarding.
Yes, The Kerala Story is a no-nuance propaganda only. Deal with it. If Pa. Ranjith can make a no-nuance propaganda film for his politics, so can Sudipto Sen.
A review by Scroll.in ridicules the film as pandering to “WhatsApp University crowd” and Islamophobic. Well, if the religion itself is kafirophobic, calling out the same will feel like being “Islamophobic”.
“A man who went around with his wife’s body”, “A man who let his own wife be kidnapped and put through misery”, “A womanizer” – these references of Asifa berating Hindu Gods are not figments of imagination. These are actually part of the WhatsApp University conversations of those who consider Hindus as heathens. Go to the comments section of YouTube videos, Facebook posts, Twitter threads and Instagram replies and we will see the exact kind of exchanges that is shown in the film. “Allah is the only God! Only Allah runs this world”, is the thought that reverberates among majority of hardcore believers. The moderate Muslim is a miniscule minority. That’s because the core tenets of Islam doesn’t allow one to be a ‘moderate’ Muslim. In the Islamic worldview, you either believe in Allah and live under Sharia or you don’t. And if you don’t, you deserve to die.
This is what fuels jihad and this is the problem that Kerala faces. Girls are targeted, trapped, groomed, impregnated, converted, married, and made ready to wage war against the Indian state and its kafirs. This is what is called love jihad which the LeLis (Left Liberals) claim to be a “conspiracy theory spread by right-wing extremists”.
If it is a “right-wing extremist conspiracy theory”, why would a Merrin Jacob Pallath become Maryam and go to Afghanistan with her husband? Why would a Nimisha become Fathima and join the IS in Afghanistan?
And no, it is not just two stray incidents of “misguided youths”. The majority of IS recruitments from India came from Kerala, which accounted for “40 of the 180 to 200 cases” according to a report by Observer Research Foundation.
In 2019, then Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy submitted in Parliament that “the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the state police forces have registered cases against ISIS operatives and sympathisers, and have arrested 155 accused from across the country so far”.
According to a US State Department report titled ‘Country Reports on Terrorism 2020: India’, “There were 66 known Indian-origin fighters affiliated with ISIS, as of November (2020).”
So, 32,000 or 32 – the fact that hundreds have joined ISIS with a majority of them from Kerala is no propaganda but a reality.
Love Jihad may be a conspiracy to the likes of The News Minute and other LeLis but it is a reality which has been acknowledged by the Kerala High Court, then Kerala Communist Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan, Kerala Catholic Bishops Council, Syro-Malabar Church.
In 2009, the Kerala High Court asked the government to frame laws to stop “love Jihad” citing that, 3000-4000 religious conversions had taken place after love affairs in the preceding four years. The same year, Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC) stated that more than 2600 young Christian women had converted to Islam since 2006.
In 2010, then Kerala Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan said “Their plan is to make Kerala a Muslim state in the next 20 years. For that they are luring youngsters. Offering them money. Insisting them to marry Hindu girls to increase Muslim population. This is how they are growing their majority. And these tricks are working!”
In 2012, the then Congress Chief Minister of Kerala, Oomen Chandy, said in a written reply that, a total of 7713 people converted to Islam during 2006-2012.
The Syro-Malabar Church, issued a statement in January 2020 claiming that Christian girls are being “targeted and killed” in the name of “love jihad”.
The menace of Islamic radicalization is a reality. The menace of love jihad is a reality.
Despite the evidence staring at the face, LeLis like The News Minute’s Dhanya Rajendran, Alt News’ Mohammed Zubair have a problem with the number of cases being mentioned in the film.
Teaser will be removed. What about movie? Asking this question only because they told the court they will remove from teaser. Otherwise it is supposed to be 'fictionalised' anyway!
In fact, The News Minute in its coverage of the 21 members from Kerala joining IS whitewashes Salafism (the extremely fundamentalist school of Islam) that inspires people to join IS.
“In the widest sense of the term, Salafis are people who believe that the right way of life was the one led by the early Muslims – those who lived within 400 years of Prophet Mohammed’s death. They believe the lives of people of that time are worth emulating, down to the last detail, hence the focus on religious scriptures.“, that’s how TNM defines the radical Islamist ideology that is at the root of jihad.
When talking about the Salafi commune in Athikka, the article says “They lead a simple, minimalist life, with what they see are necessities.”
There is a reason why outfits like the banned Popular Front of India and its affiliates have a strong presence in north Kerala and coastal Karnataka. There is a reason why most of the Islamic State recruits from India hail from this region. And the reason is the burgeoning influence of radical Islamists professing Salafism. They’ve grown in influence thanks to the patronage of the Communists and Congress in Kerala. Today, these regions are nothing but an Islamic State within India where Sharia is in place in many of the villages. And I can vouch for this with my personal experience.
I was once returning to Mangaluru on a local bus after visiting the Somanatha Temple situated on the banks of Arabian Sea. I was the only Hindu in the bus and I was surrounded by men in white skull caps and women in black burqua. It felt like being in a mini-Pakistan. I felt unsafe and insecure in my own country. That’s when I realized the gravity of the demographic situation in Kerala.
I felt the same sense of eerieness when I managed to watch the movie on 5 May 2023 in Tamil Nadu where the theatre screening the film had heavy police presence. Goers for The Kerala Story were separated filed, frisked and escorted by the police upto the screens. Did we see this kind of security situation for say PK, Haider, Kaala or any other film which ridiculed Hindus? This shows the level of tolerance of Islamists and how much the State fears them despite them being the “minority”.
Losing Our Sons documentary shows how the Barack Obama administration and a section of the US media denied the radical Islamist problem for want of ‘political correctness’ and in order to not offend/incite Muslims. We have seen the same being done by secular governments and the LeLi media in India.
So, yes, sometimes there is a need for loud propaganda like The Kerala Story to drill the reality into people’s head.
The closing line of Losing Our Sons film ends with the warning – “It happened to my son today, tomorrow, your son.”
It holds good for us as well.
Kaushik is a political writer.
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally
As a society there are several burning issues which are creeping under the surface. Many of these issues are unaddressed ignoring victims of these ordeals.
During the time when certain topics were ‘cancelled’ outrightly by the ‘Left-Liberal’ intelligentsia of Lutyens Delhi, one could never muster the courage to put these topics in to public debates whether in the name of creative freedom or realistic concerns.
The appeasement politics practiced until not so long ago tend to keep a lid on these issue in the name of minority protection. But it seems that wind is blowing in a different direction now.
Issues of great concerns for the majority community are being discussed with courage unlike before, the change in attitude of acknowledging plight of the majority community are now being reflected in the movie industry also.
The Bollywood delivered us ‘Kashmir Files,’ at last mainstreaming the concerns of Kashmiri Hindus with sheer audacity despite protests from the above-mentioned pseudo intelligentsia. In a similar manner now, we have a movie which depicts the reality behind ‘Love Jihad’ and the plight of women involved in the process.
Through eye opening screenplay and heart wrenching scenes, The Kerala Story depicts the true intentions of Islamic terrorists who weaponizes Love to lure in women belonging to Hinduism or other religions. It is true that the filmmakers employed their creative freedom and it is evident from many scenes which does not sit well with the plot, the movie was successful in delivering its core message in an unabashed manner, which is on how the extremists in Muslim world use even love as a weapon for the purpose of propagating their religion and on how victims are created in the wake of greedy exploitation for proselytization.
The Plot
The plot revolves around four teenage girls who enrol in a nursing programme at a prestigious college in North Kerala. Adah Sharma (Shalini), the heroine, is from a traditional Hindu family; another (Geetanjali) is from a Hindu Communist family; the third (Nimah) is from a Christian family; and the fourth (Asifa) is a Hijabi Muslim. Even from the beginning the film sets the atmosphere clear, the campus in the which the protagonist enters resembles eerie similarities to the campus of JNU, New Delhi during the CAA protests. The atheistic tendencies among non-Muslim communities and probability of them falling in to anti-national communist and anarchic behaviours are evident from certain scenes itself. Talking about reading the frames, one could also notice that Hinduism is misrepresented with disregard in form of dialogues or graffities representing the true spirit of conversion mafia.
Asifa is tasked with brainwashing her roommates into converting to Islam, and she employs her young, male “relatives”, community members and elders, and Quran verses to do this. She believes she is performing a religious obligation as prescribed by the Quran, and her conscience never warns her that she is destroying the lives of the other three girls who considered her a friend. Even the young men who assist in the destruction of these innocent girls’ lives feel no sorrow or guilt as they ravage the bodies of the girls, believing that it is permissible, nay, blessed, in the Quran and will provide them straight access into Jannat, the fictitious heaven. That they have already degraded their humanity and conscience by participating in such a heinous agenda. Adah Sharma portrays Shalini alias Fatima’s path from joyful, naive student to ISIS recruit to urgently wishing to escape that life with her young daughter. Siddhi Idnani’s performance as Geetu, who strives bravely to let go of her past until it threatens to destroy the respect her parents have in society, takes the viewer on a roller-coaster ride as well. Yogita Bihani (Nimah) and Sonia Balani (Asifa) have both played their parts well. ISIS took the converted females and their Muslim husbands. The tragic stories of the girls were only brought to light in 2016 when they were captured and subsequently probed in Afghanistan.
The movie also has certain scenes which is gruesome in its depiction. The scenes of repeated rape, exploitation, violence under sharia law sometimes makes one turn their head but one’s stomach will turn only after realizing that these instances really take place in Sharia world. And it becomes even more nerve wracking to know that The Kerala Story is inspired from real events and after knowing the facts behind their ordeal one could not deny the reality behind love jihad.
One of the most discussed cases of love jihad was that of the four girls who were in the 21-member group that joined ISIS in 2016 along with their husbands. The four girls were identified as Sonia Sebastian alias Ayisha, Merrin Jacob alias Mariyam, Nimisha alias Fathima Isa and Raffaela. These four girls were trapped and lured to become Muslims. They left India in 2016 to join the ISKP (Islamic State of Khorasan Province) the Khorasan edition of ISIS in Afghanistan along with a group of 21 men and women from Kerala. The detailed accounts of their testimony are included in a documentary made by StratNews Global. Many scenes which can be criticised as excessive does justice to the story telling, one could only blindly criticise or ignore the narrative in the movie only if one decides to ignore the brutal reality behind the existence of Love Jihad.
Creative Liberty But With Audacity
The Kerala Story has some creative elements in it. Beginning from the depiction of Kerala, the movie does not seem to do justice to the authenticity part of creativity. At many places of the film, one could notice such instances of willful ignorance or products of bad research. It does a bad job in representing all Muslims as radical and imposes preconceived naivety on to the victim. But the film sticks to its core messaging, which is airing the reality behind Love Jihad so that it becomes a topic of mainstream discussion. The Kerala Story may have to change the description from 32,000 to 4 in wake of absence of accurate data but it is only the numbering which is disputed and not the reality.
The Kerala Story is only a tip of the iceberg of suffering of these women whom are being turned in to victims by Islamic radicals for propagation of the religion. The Muslim youth in the movie, despite their gender sets their agenda of converting the women from other religion. The film does justice in this regard as the movie depicts their agenda with sheer audacity. And finally in the credit scene of the film, narration from one of the real victims herself is shown and it makes the audience leave home with a message, a thought to ponder up on even after leaving the theatre, grim reality behind the Love Jihad.
We all know that there are many criticisms surrounding the movie on its depiction of Muslims and their religious agenda, but the real question that should be asked is whether anyone protesting the movie bothered to know about the reality behind Love Jihad? Or why there should be protests if social issues from the Muslim community are depicted on screen? It is interesting to note that Hindu concerns have been constantly brushed aside by the media on their depiction on screen. If Hindu concerns were addressed in earnest, then movies such as Haider or PK should not be allowed to be screened. The comments made by Kerala High Court in this issue is praiseworthy. During the hearing of petition to ban The Kerala Story, Kerala HC had stated that, “There are umpteen number of movies where Hindu sanyasis are depicted as smugglers or rapists. Nothing happens, no one protests. Many such Hindi and Malayalam films are there.” The judiciary took the right step in allowing screening of a movie which exposes the brutal reality behind Love Jihad. We can hope that with the release of this movie the issue of Love Jihad will finally enters the mainstream discussions and measures will be taken to eradicate this social evil once and for all.
Anand Krishna is a Kerala-based lawyer and a columnist.
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally
According to Asianet Suvarma News’ 2nd #JanKiBaatKarnatakaPoll pre-poll survey, the BJP will be the single largest party in the upcoming Karnataka state assembly election. The survey predicted that BJP will secure between 100 to 114 seats, while the runner up congress will be securing 86 to 98 seats. JDS will be distant third with 20 to 26 seats. The survey predicted that Modi factor is helping BJP, Muslim votes are consolidating with congress and JDS vote share is contracting.
According to the poll, the BJP will receive 38 to 40.5% of the vote, the Congress will receive 38.5 to 41.5% of the vote, and the JDS will receive 14 to 16.5% of the vote. The survey predicts 70% of Lingayats support the BJP, while 21% and 9% support the Congress and JDS, respectively. The BJP, Congress, and JDS share 24%, 18%, and 54% of the Vokkaliga votes, respectively. The Congress receives 83% of the Kurba vote, while the BJP and JDS receive a tiny proportion. It is reported that Vokkaligas vote share of JDS has dropped since 2018 and that the party’s ability to pull other caste votes also has come down.
Region wise survey shows BJP leads in Coastal Karnataka and Kittur Karnataka, while the INC leads in Kalyan Karnataka. Neck and neck battle is seen between BJP and Congress in Bengaluru region. JDS vote share isdipping in the Old Mysore region, and the dip is split between INC and BJP.
As far as VIP seats are concerned CM BasvarajBommai leads from Shiggaon, DK Shivkumar leads from Kanakpura, CT Ravi leads from Chikmanglur, & BY Vijayendra leads from Shikaripura, while Jagadish Shettar trails from Hubali Dharwad Central. According to the survey, there are 27 constituencies where the margin of vote is less than 6000.
As per 2nd constituency wise #JanKiBaatKarnatakaPoll released on @AsianetNewsSN & covering data analysis upto May 1st , BJP can get betwn 100-114, INC 86-98, & JDS 20-26 seats. Modi factor helping BJP , & Muzlim vote Consolidating with INC, & JDS contracting. 1/9@jankibaat1pic.twitter.com/EgBvJ8rduj
— Pradeep Bhandari(प्रदीप भंडारी)🇮🇳 (@pradip103) May 4, 2023
During the 2018 Karnataka Assembly elections, when most pollsters gave a decisive verdict for either BJP or Congress it was JKB which was closer to the final numbers.
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally
BJP MLA Vanathi Srinivasan took a dig at those who opposed The Kerala Story movie by asking them to watch a movie as a movie.
BJP Coimbatore South MLA Vanathi Srinivasan and AIADMK Coimbatore North MLA Amman Arjunan inaugurated a Anganwadi Centre in Sivananda Colony area of Coimbatore district. Vanathi Srinivasan spoke to the media following the event and informed them that funds have been allocated for six new Anganwadi centres. MLA Vanathi went on to say that the Tamil Nadu government should inspect Anganwadi centres throughout the state and that those who work in Anganwadi centres should be paid a decent wage.
When questioned about the controversy surrounding The Kerala Story movie, BJP MLA Vanathi Srinivasan said, “In this country, everyone has the right to freedom of expression. Freedom of expression is limited by certain reasonable restrictions. It was upheld by courts in several judgements. Similarly several courts have dismissed petitions filed against the movie (The Kerala Story).”
The Kerala Story is an Indian Hindi-language film directed by Sudipto Sen and produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah. The plot follows the story of a group of women from Kerala who converted to Islam and joined the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Political parties in Kerala alleged that the movie promotes the Sangh Parivar’s agenda.
In light of this, when a journalist asked BJP MLA Vanathi Srinivasan about the controversy surrounding the film, she responded by advising to watch the film as a film.
MLA Vanathi added, “On several instances in the past, the leaders from opposition parties asked us to look at a movie as just movies. I would like to tender the same advise to them.”
It is worth noting that when the BJP opposed films such as Mersal, The Godman web series, and others, parties such as the DMK, VCK, CPM, CPI, and others claimed that the BJP was stifling freedom of expression.
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.
K N Nehru, DMK principal secretary and municipal administration minister, has hinted that the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) may join the DMK-led alliance in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Nehru said in his address to the party’s Trichy south district cadres on Friday that party president and chief minister MK Stalin has kept the alliance partners Congress, CPI, CPM, VCK, MDMK, IUML, and MMK together for the past ten years.
In addition to the existing parties, he stated that the SDPI, a Muslim party, will join them in the future. He said at the meeting, “Additionally, SDPI may join us. It will be known during election time only.”
He went on to say that the DMK president will reward cadres for their efforts after the Lok Sabha elections. Nehru also chastised governor R N Ravi for referring to the Dravidian model as an outdated ideology. Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi, Trichy south district secretary and school education minister, organized the cadres meeting to prepare them for the LS polls.
Nehru’s remark about SDPI’s possible inclusion in the alliance sparked speculation in political circles. However, DMK sources said KN Nehru’s claim was premature, saying it could only be decided by the party president in the run-up to the elections next year. SDPI, on the other hand, has welcomed the statement of KN Nehru and said, “We want to be part of the DMK alliance. However, the decision on the alliance will be taken only by our general council.”
It should be noted that in February 2022, a clash between cadres of the SDPI and the DMK erupted in the Kottaimedu area of Coimbatore during local body elections. SDPI cadres smashed DMK cadres black and blue as the latter attempted to run in the Muslim-dominated constituency.
SDPI is the political front of the banned radical Islamist terror outfit Popular Front of India (PFI). On September 22, 2022, National Intelligence Agency officials raided more than 100 locations across the country including in Tamil Nadu of SDPI and PFI and arrested 11 members to crackdown on suspected terror-funding activities.
Two SDPI workers were arrested for two separate incidents of vandalism and arson at Kuniyamuthur in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore district on 23 September 2022.
NIA officials conducted raids on PFI offices in Dindigul district and the homes of office-bearers in Coimbatore, Cuddalore, Ramnad, Theni and Thenkasi districts. Searches were also carried out at the PFI’s office in Chennai and eight places in the Madurai city area.
Ramesh Chennithala, a senior Congress leader, has called for a judicial investigation into the charges of corruption in the acquisition of Artificial Intelligence (AI) equipped traffic cameras under the State’s Safe Kerala initiative. According to the government, AI cameras are being installed to lower the amount of traffic accidents and violations. These cameras can catch offences such as tripling, not wearing seat belts, failing to stop at a red light, and so on. However, the entire transaction has sparked suspicion due to the relationship between the ruling regime and the contractors, as well as the large disparity in funds involved. Chennithala submitted documentation demonstrating that there were contacts between SRIT India Private Limited and Ashoka Buildcon Limited prior to the start of the e-Tender procedures for the Safe Kerala Project. Furthermore, Chennithala provided documents to the media demonstrating that Ashoka Buildcon had awarded a subcontract to Presadio, a company headed by a relative of the Chief Minister.
According to Ramesh Chennithala, the CM’s silence on these claims proves that he is implicated in the scheme. The Congress leader also addressed Opposition Leader VD Satheesan’s corruption charge against the government in the KFONE issue. Chennithala said that paying Rs.363 crores for seven years of upkeep is massive corruption. He said that corruption increased after M Sivasankar was appointed IT Secretary. Ramesh Chennithala urged that a thorough probe be conducted on all the IT department’s activities since 2018.
The Trail Of Corruption
The corruption trail in the AI camera project is intriguing and it also reveals cartelization of government contracts by loyalists of the current CPIM government. According to Leader of the Opposition V D Satheesan, the first Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF administration exaggerated the cost of the Kerala Fibre Optic Network (K-FON) project by 50%, or roughly ₹500 crore. According to Onmanorama, the project cost could be ₹600 crore higher than the initial estimate of ₹1,028 crore. Congress lawmaker Satheesan claimed that the method used to defraud the people was the same in both the K-FON and AI traffic camera projects. In the AI camera project, the Kerala government’s company Keltron anchored the shady contract, and in the K-FON project, central PSU Bharat Electronics Limited played the lead bidder.
Despite the corruption allegations levelled against him, the chief minister is yet to speak out. KSITIL issued a tender for the K-FON project in June 2018, with the lowest bidder coming from a consortium managed by Bengaluru-based Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL). RailTel, South Korean optical ground wire business LS Cable and System, and Bengaluru-based SRIT Private Limited were also members of the BEL-led consortium. The government stated that the project had two packages: Package A was the K-FON project, with a bid price of ₹1,548.68 crore, and Package B was the establishment of a’reliable communication and data collection network’ for KSEB. The BEL consortium provided a ₹17 crore discount, lowering the cost of ‘Package A’ to ₹1,531.68 crore, which is 50% higher than the amount sanctioned by the government.
In February 2019, corrupt IT secretary M Sivasankar wrote to the managing director of Kerala State IT Infrastructure Limited, urging him to submit the ‘letter of intent’ to the BEL-led consortium as soon as possible. In November 2019, the Electronics and Information Technology Department issued a government order accepting the bid of ₹1,531.68 crore for K-FON, which was 50% higher than the initial estimate of ₹1,028.20 crore. This was owing to the impending election notifications and the necessity to maximise the working season from February to May (pre-monsoon). The government has lowered the number of beneficiaries from 20 lakh to 14,000, and the government has honoured its pledge provided to the managing director of KSITIL in February 2019. The cost of operating and maintaining the K-FON project for seven years, including taxes, is ₹428.85 crore. However, without including the KSEB’s share of ₹79.67 crore, the tender amount sanctioned was ₹151.68 crore, or nearly 11% more. The maintenance cost of ₹428.85 crore will be borne by the special purpose vehicle (SPV) formed by KSEB and KSITIL, with the remaining sum of ₹336.15 crore allocated to the SPV as equity. SRIT Private Limited won the competition for K-FON and subcontracted the cable laying to Ashoka Buildcon for ₹314 crore. Ashoka Buildcon hired Presadio Technologies the following month to provide and install cables and pre-fabricated shelters for K-FON.
Ramjith, according to BJP leader Shoba Surendran, was a benami for Prakash Babu, the father-in-law of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s son Vivek Kiran Vijayan. SRIT won the AI camera tender, which Ashoka Buildcon was one of three qualified bidders for, for ₹232 crore. Opposition leaders Satheesan and Ramesh Chennithala expressed concern over cartelization. In February of this year, the government issued another tender to hire a business to administer the Kerala Fibre Optic Network. Cube Fibernet Private Limited, Light Wave Technologies Private Limited, and SRIT India Private Limited competed to become K-FON’s managed service provider (MSP). SRIT won the bid for a fee of 10% of total revenue and is eligible for an additional 2% of total revenue as a performance incentive. According to Opposition Leader VD Satheesan, the government is the investor, while private firms benefit.
From Life Mission To Gold Smuggling- The Many Scams Of Pinarayi Govt
Life Mission to Gold smuggling scam point to the existence of a corrupt network of bureaucratic cronies surrounding the Chief Minister. There is a pertinent need to investigate and examine these corruptions in Kerala and understand how the communists are fattening up using public money.
LIFE Mission was a government project to provide free housing for the homeless and victims of the Kerala floods in 2018. The project aimed to build houses for 140 families in Thrissur’s Wadakkanchery region through the LIFE Mission scheme by spending ₹14.50 crore out of ₹20 crore granted by the Red Crescent via the UAE consulate. The contract also said the remaining amount would be used for the construction of a hospital. The Red Crescent is said to be a non-profit organisation supporting humanitarian work but has a questionable background. UNITAC Builders were given the construction contract. UNITAC managing director Santhosh Eapen said that all the accused had received a bribe worth ₹4.48 crore for the project. Later, the government ordered a probe into the case.
The other accused in the case are Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nair. Accused in the case, Swapna Suresh and Sarith PS made allegations against Sivasankar that he had a role in this. Irregularities in the scheme came to light when the ED was probing the gold smuggling case. The ED had reportedly got ₹2 crores in cash, and 2 kgs of gold from Swapna Suresh’s bank locker in October 2020. Swapna Suresh, the prime accused in the gold smuggling case, had told the ED that the money came from the commissions Sivasankar got from clinching a deal with The Red Crescent, an international aid group, for providing housing for 2018 flood victims in Wadakkanchery of Thrissur district.
The investigation agency had earlier arrested M. Sivasankar, the former Principal Secretary to the Kerala Chief minister, in connection with the case. Mr. Sivasankar is currently in judicial custody. Sivasankar had allegedly asked Swapna to keep the cash in her locker. The case, according to the investigation agency, is that a huge amount was syphoned off by the accused as commission from the funds released by an overseas organisation for the housing project. The agency contended that the money found in the bank locker of Swapna Suresh, another accused in the money-laundering case booked earlier, was part of the commission the accused had received. In the meantime, leaked chats between these secretaries and Swapna Suresh had caused embarrassment not only to the CM or the ruling party but also to the people of Kerala. As per the chats, M Sivasankar, the then-principal secretary to the CM, assured Swapna, who was about to resign from her job at the UAE Consulate in Thiruvananthapuram, that she would be assured a job at the NORKA, which is the Department of Non-Resident Keralites Affairs. The chats also mention that Pinarayi’s additional private secretary CM Raveendran informed Sivasankar that Swapna met the CM.
How the saga of corruption that is being unravelled in Kerala relates to each other is still a mystery but on close examination, we can find a common thread that binds them all. The common thread which connects them runs through the Chief Minister and his secretaries, but the big question is about the extent of the role of the CM. Even though that mystery continues, as leader of a democratic state, he should explain what his role is in all these allegations.
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.
In a shocking revelation, Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi, in his latest interview with the Times of India, exposed how the minor girls of the Podhu Dikshitar families of Chidambaram temple were forced into the banned two-finger test in a malicious endeavor to defame them. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has taken suo moto cognizance of the Governor’s remarks and has sought an action report from the state Chief Secretary V Irai Anbu.
Governor Ravi also alleged that the officers in the social welfare department of Tamil Nadu placed a false accusation on eight Dikshitar families for marrying off their underage daughters when in reality, nothing of that sort happened. He called out the sheer vengeance of the officers.
The revelations that followed were truly disturbing and heart-wrenching. Based on the alleged fabricated case, he exposed how the teen girls who were doing their sixth and seventh standards were forced to take the ‘two-finger tests’, and their parents were put behind bars. Living through the trauma, some of them attempted suicide. The governor added details of how he expressed his concerns about the misery in a letter to the Chief Minister and questioned him about the ordeals.
What Is A Two-Finger Test And Why They Are Banned?
If you rank all the horrible ordeals on earth, nothing can inch closer to the physical and mental pain that come with these virginity tests conducted on an already strained rape survivor. The two-finger test involves a physical examination of a woman’s genitalia where the practitioner inserts two fingers into their vagina in an endeavor to determine the virginity of the woman. The laxity of the hymen and vaginal muscles is considered a measure of their sexual history and, eventually, their virginity.
The two-finger tests are not only considered unethical, but they are also proven unscientific. Various doctors have raised their voices against the test and discredited its reliability and accuracy on the grounds that the hymen can rupture when girls engage in a powerful play, ride a bicycle, use a tampon, etc. So, a hymen rupture cannot be considered a determinant of a woman’s virginity or sexual history. Beyond that, the laxity of the vaginal muscles depends on psychological factors and stress, say a woman is distressed, the vaginal muscles are tight and tensed. It can never be considered a credible measure of virginity.
Even in sexual assault cases, a women’s sexual history is irrelevant to the subject. Considering all these, the Government of India made the two-finger virginity tests illegal in 2012. In the following year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations (UN) released press notes and a handbook to healthcare workers about the distress caused by such unscientific practices and unethical tests.
Dikshitars Have Always Remained The Target Of DMK Govt
Perhaps, this is not the first time that the Pothu Dikshitars, the hereditary priests of the legendary Chidambaram Natarajar Temple, have been targeted by venomous propaganda. In Tamil Nadu, the power of temple administration vests with the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR & CE) Department of the Government.
The DMK government has always had a notorious interest in the administration of the Chidambaram temple, which remains under the custodianship of the Dikshitars. In 1987, the government appointed an officer to oversee the temple’s functioning and administration. Later in 2009, the then-DMK government appointed an officer and handed him ample powers, which eventually turned out to be one of the most hostile temple takeovers.
Though the Dikshitars appealed in the High Court, their pleas were continuously dismissed until 2014, the Dikshithars finally won the 27-year-old case in the Supreme Court. When the Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK government decided not to contest or appeal against the judgment and let the Dikshitars take charge of the temple, the DMK government placed criticisms.
Right after the DMK government came to power in May 2021, the HR&CE Minister has been vocal about bringing back the temple administration under its aegis. The Stalin-led DMK government sought an opinion from the public on the administration of the temple. It has received around 6000 petitions upon which the decision about the administrative control of the temple is yet to be made.
The governor’s claim of the fabricated cases against the Dikshitar families calls for a deeper investigation as it is evident that the case has a broader, venomous intent than we could imagine. The government is trying to achieve by defamation and power what it could not achieve through judiciary and law. By forcing virginity tests on the innocent girls of the Dikshitar families in an attempt to defame the priests, it has only stooped to new lows.
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.
The Kerala Story: A Propaganda Film That Unapolegetically Shows The Reality
This is the opening quote of the 2012 American documentary Losing Our Sons. The documentary is about two American families (one black and another white) who lost their sons to radical Islam. The film shows how Carl Bledsoe, born and raised in an African-American Baptist family, becomes Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad after getting indoctrinated at Tennessee State University which leads him to Yemen on a fake Somalian passport and returns to USA to kill as many army personnel as possible with his jihad resulting in the 2009 Little Rock recruiting office shooting killing Private William Long. The film was made to educate Americans about the threat of radical Islam and how this was being wilfully ignored by the political leadership, authorities and the media in the name of political correctness.
If Losing Our Sons was about America losing its sons to Islam, The Kerala Story is about India losing her daughters to the threat that is right in front of our nose.
Very few works on paper and celluloid have the privilege of exploding into a controversy even before hitting the market. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, Taslima Nasrin’s autobiographical works especially Dwikhandito, Geert Wilders’ documentary Fitna, Terrorists Among Us: Jihad in America directed by Steven Emerson, Vivek Agnihotri’s The Kashmir Files, and now joining the league is Sudipto Sen’s The Kerala Story. And what’s common in all the above works? They hold a mirror to the radical face of Islam.
The Kerala Story minces no words in calling out the threat looming over the God’s own country. And in doing so, the film does feel like it is forcing the message down one’s throat. The dialogues on the conflict between Islamic and non-Islamic theology feel forced. The characterisation of Asifa Ba lacks nuance. The markers in different scenes are in your face and terms like “global agenda” does dumb the film down. But that doesn’t discount the reality. By being overtly straightforward with no subtlety, Sudipto Sen slaps on the face of the blissfully-ignorant and culturally-delinked Hindu, grabs the person by the collar and shouts aloud “Wake up! Before it is too late!”
Speaking of subtlety and propaganda, it is important to mention Pa. Ranjith’s film Kaala starring Superstar Rajinikanth which was an out and out propaganda against Hindus and Hinduism. The markers like “Manu Realty”, “H. Jara towards the end of the movie”, “the blue, red, black symbolizing Neo-Ambedkarism, Communism, Periyarism respectively”, portraying Ganesh Chathurthi visarjan in bad light, the antagonization of Lord Ram, were celebrated by the same bunch of reviewers calling The Kerala Story a “no-nuance propaganda”.
Yes, The Kerala Story is a no-nuance propaganda only. Deal with it. If Pa. Ranjith can make a no-nuance propaganda film for his politics, so can Sudipto Sen.
A review by Scroll.in ridicules the film as pandering to “WhatsApp University crowd” and Islamophobic. Well, if the religion itself is kafirophobic, calling out the same will feel like being “Islamophobic”.
“A man who went around with his wife’s body”, “A man who let his own wife be kidnapped and put through misery”, “A womanizer” – these references of Asifa berating Hindu Gods are not figments of imagination. These are actually part of the WhatsApp University conversations of those who consider Hindus as heathens. Go to the comments section of YouTube videos, Facebook posts, Twitter threads and Instagram replies and we will see the exact kind of exchanges that is shown in the film. “Allah is the only God! Only Allah runs this world”, is the thought that reverberates among majority of hardcore believers. The moderate Muslim is a miniscule minority. That’s because the core tenets of Islam doesn’t allow one to be a ‘moderate’ Muslim. In the Islamic worldview, you either believe in Allah and live under Sharia or you don’t. And if you don’t, you deserve to die.
This is what fuels jihad and this is the problem that Kerala faces. Girls are targeted, trapped, groomed, impregnated, converted, married, and made ready to wage war against the Indian state and its kafirs. This is what is called love jihad which the LeLis (Left Liberals) claim to be a “conspiracy theory spread by right-wing extremists”.
If it is a “right-wing extremist conspiracy theory”, why would a Merrin Jacob Pallath become Maryam and go to Afghanistan with her husband? Why would a Nimisha become Fathima and join the IS in Afghanistan?
And no, it is not just two stray incidents of “misguided youths”. The majority of IS recruitments from India came from Kerala, which accounted for “40 of the 180 to 200 cases” according to a report by Observer Research Foundation.
In 2019, then Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy submitted in Parliament that “the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the state police forces have registered cases against ISIS operatives and sympathisers, and have arrested 155 accused from across the country so far”.
According to a US State Department report titled ‘Country Reports on Terrorism 2020: India’, “There were 66 known Indian-origin fighters affiliated with ISIS, as of November (2020).”
So, 32,000 or 32 – the fact that hundreds have joined ISIS with a majority of them from Kerala is no propaganda but a reality.
Love Jihad may be a conspiracy to the likes of The News Minute and other LeLis but it is a reality which has been acknowledged by the Kerala High Court, then Kerala Communist Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan, Kerala Catholic Bishops Council, Syro-Malabar Church.
In 2009, the Kerala High Court asked the government to frame laws to stop “love Jihad” citing that, 3000-4000 religious conversions had taken place after love affairs in the preceding four years. The same year, Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC) stated that more than 2600 young Christian women had converted to Islam since 2006.
In 2010, then Kerala Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan said “Their plan is to make Kerala a Muslim state in the next 20 years. For that they are luring youngsters. Offering them money. Insisting them to marry Hindu girls to increase Muslim population. This is how they are growing their majority. And these tricks are working!”
In 2012, the then Congress Chief Minister of Kerala, Oomen Chandy, said in a written reply that, a total of 7713 people converted to Islam during 2006-2012.
The Syro-Malabar Church, issued a statement in January 2020 claiming that Christian girls are being “targeted and killed” in the name of “love jihad”.
The menace of Islamic radicalization is a reality. The menace of love jihad is a reality.
Despite the evidence staring at the face, LeLis like The News Minute’s Dhanya Rajendran, Alt News’ Mohammed Zubair have a problem with the number of cases being mentioned in the film.
In fact, The News Minute in its coverage of the 21 members from Kerala joining IS whitewashes Salafism (the extremely fundamentalist school of Islam) that inspires people to join IS.
“In the widest sense of the term, Salafis are people who believe that the right way of life was the one led by the early Muslims – those who lived within 400 years of Prophet Mohammed’s death. They believe the lives of people of that time are worth emulating, down to the last detail, hence the focus on religious scriptures.“, that’s how TNM defines the radical Islamist ideology that is at the root of jihad.
When talking about the Salafi commune in Athikka, the article says “They lead a simple, minimalist life, with what they see are necessities.”
There is a reason why outfits like the banned Popular Front of India and its affiliates have a strong presence in north Kerala and coastal Karnataka. There is a reason why most of the Islamic State recruits from India hail from this region. And the reason is the burgeoning influence of radical Islamists professing Salafism. They’ve grown in influence thanks to the patronage of the Communists and Congress in Kerala. Today, these regions are nothing but an Islamic State within India where Sharia is in place in many of the villages. And I can vouch for this with my personal experience.
I was once returning to Mangaluru on a local bus after visiting the Somanatha Temple situated on the banks of Arabian Sea. I was the only Hindu in the bus and I was surrounded by men in white skull caps and women in black burqua. It felt like being in a mini-Pakistan. I felt unsafe and insecure in my own country. That’s when I realized the gravity of the demographic situation in Kerala.
I felt the same sense of eerieness when I managed to watch the movie on 5 May 2023 in Tamil Nadu where the theatre screening the film had heavy police presence. Goers for The Kerala Story were separated filed, frisked and escorted by the police upto the screens. Did we see this kind of security situation for say PK, Haider, Kaala or any other film which ridiculed Hindus? This shows the level of tolerance of Islamists and how much the State fears them despite them being the “minority”.
Losing Our Sons documentary shows how the Barack Obama administration and a section of the US media denied the radical Islamist problem for want of ‘political correctness’ and in order to not offend/incite Muslims. We have seen the same being done by secular governments and the LeLi media in India.
So, yes, sometimes there is a need for loud propaganda like The Kerala Story to drill the reality into people’s head.
The closing line of Losing Our Sons film ends with the warning – “It happened to my son today, tomorrow, your son.”
It holds good for us as well.
Kaushik is a political writer.
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally