Protests surrounding the Hindutva propaganda movie, ‘The Kerala Story’, resurfaced after the movie was screened by a church, which also organized a class on one of its Islamophobic themes, ‘Love Jihad’, for teenagers. The Idukki diocese of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church in Kerala directed the participants of their annual summer program, the ‘Festival of Faith’ to write a review on The Kerala Story after being made to watch it.
The screening took place amidst criticism by the ruling party and opposition against autonomous public service broadcaster Doordarshan for premiering the film during the election.
The movie was screened on April 4 for catechism class students belonging to the age group of 15, 16, and 17. A textbook prepared for the program and distributed to the participants had contents on ‘Love Jihad’, the Islamophobic bogey propagated by the Sangh Parivar, alleging Muslim men deceive Hindu and Christian women into relationships, leading to conversion to Islam.
The Fraternity Movement of Kerala has filed a complaint with the Child Rights Commission of Kerala regarding the screening of the ‘A’-certified movie for minors. Following in the footsteps of the Idukki Diocese, the Thamarassery Diocese also announced a screening of the movie before they retracted from the plan following public outrage.
This story was originally published in maktoobmedia.com. Read the full story here.