New Delhi: Hours after the Kerala high court refused to stay the telecast of The Kerala Story by Doordarshan (DD National), the communally sensitive film was aired on the channel on Friday, April 5 evening in the state.
The 2023 film, claimed to be based on a true story from Kerala, promotes the Hindutva conspiracy theory of ‘Love Jihad’ – according to which the Muslim community is deploying attractive Muslim young men to seduce Hindi women and convert them to Islam so that India eventually becomes a Muslim-majority country. Since the film’s Islamophobic content proved controversial at the time of the film’s release, a political row broke out in Kerala as soon as the Union government controlled DD National channel decided to beam it in the run-up to the 2024 general elections. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), driven by its Hindutva ideology, is aiming at a third straight win at the Centre.
News reports said activists from the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s youth wing, Democratic Youth Federation of India, “attempted to storm the precincts of the Doordarshan Kendra in Thiruvananthapuram on April 5 demanding that the national broadcaster rescind its decision”.
Not just the CPI (M) but the Opposition Congress too slammed the screening of the pro-Hindutva film in Kerala, calling it an “insult to the people of Kerala”.
“Hours before the film was aired at the scheduled 8 pm slot, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan demanded that DD cancel the telecast. A petition was filed in the Kerala High Court to stop the screening, but the court didn’t issue an (interim) order, saying DD should have been given more time to respond,” reported the Times of India.
The report also underlined that both the leader of the opposition in the Kerala Assembly, V.D. Satheesan, and CPI (M) state secretary M.V. Govindan, shot off letters to the Election Commission of India, alleging that the telecast of the communally biased film was at the ruling BJP’s behest and “meant to appease a certain section of people ahead of the (general) elections”.
Also read: ‘The Kerala Story’ Is a Propaganda Film That Thrives on Shock Value
Congress MP from the state Shashi Tharoor called DD’s decision to air the film in the election season “propaganda at its cheapest and worst”.
On April 5, hearing the petition filed by K.G. Suraj from Thiruvananthapuram seeking a directive to DD not to telecast it till the elections are over, the Kerala high court refused to pass an interim order to that effect. The petitioner had stated in his appeal that the party in power at the Centre wants to create bias in the minds of voters before the crucial elections.
However, the court, by refusing to stay its telecast, cleared the decks for DD to air it on April 5 evening as scheduled.
The court has posted the next hearing on the case on April 11.