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By Aishwarya Paliwal: Mamata Banerjee is wrong to ban The Kerala Story in Bengal, Union minister Anurag Thakur said after the state put a stop to the screening of the controversial film.
“It is wrong on Mamata Banerjee’s part to ban the film. I want to ask the Trinamool Congress, the Congress and the Communist Party why they are with organisations like ISIS,” Thakur told India Today TV.
“If they are banning these films then they are clearly standing with these organizations,” he added.
Bengal today announced its decision to ban ‘The Kerala Story’, marred in controversy since its teaser was released and facing stiff protests in several states.
Also Read | West Bengal bans The Kerala Story to “maintain peace”
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced the decision at the state secretariat just minutes after alleging that “the BJP was funding a film on Bengal on the lines of Kashmir Files”.
Banerjee directed the state’s chief secretary to ensure the film is removed from screens across the state and said the decision has been taken to “maintain peace in Bengal” and avoid any incident of hate crimes and violence.
This comes a day after multiplexes in Tamil Nadu cancelled the screening of the controversial film, citing law and order issues and poor public response.
ROW OVER THE KERALA STORY
The Adah Sharma-starrer ‘The Kerala Story’ is about the alleged religious indoctrination in Kerala and how Hindu and Christian women are being targeted by radical Islamic clerics in the state. The movie claims that women are being converted to Islam and sent to countries like Afghanistan, Yemen, and Syria “to fight for the cause of Islam”.
Also Read | Give tax exemption to ‘The Kerala Story’, hold special screenings: BJP to Delhi CM Kejriwal
Several outfits in Kerala demonstrated against the screening of the movie which, according to the ruling CPI(M) and the opposition Congress in Kerala, falsely claims that 32,000 women have been converted, radicalised and deployed in terror missions both in India and abroad.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan slammed the filmmakers, saying they were taking up the Sangh Parivar’s propaganda of projecting the state as a centre of religious extremism by raising the issue of ‘love jihad’.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi credited the film for exposing the terror conspiracies and used it to attack the Congress at an election rally in Karnataka.
The film has been made tax-free in Madhya Pradesh, while Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak said the same could be done in the state if there is a proposal.
Also Read | ‘Salient message for young women’: BJP to screen The Kerala Story in poll-bound K’taka
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