Kerala governor rues planned efforts to disturb communal harmony in state

Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan Friday said there have been “planned efforts” over the past couple of decades to disturb communal harmony in the state.

Answering questions by reporters here on the controversial film “The Kerala Story”, Khan said he has not watched the movie and observed that there was an atmosphere of cordiality and brotherhood among people of different faiths in the state.

The Kerala governor was here to pay homage to his guru Puran Chand Shastri. He said people in Kerala wear the same kind of clothes, eat the same kind of food, and speak the same language.

“You will not find anyone saying there that this is a Muslim or a Hindu language. No one will say this person is from north Kerala or south Kerala… But, there have been planned efforts in the past one or two decades to create a rift there. All are aware of this,” he said.

On the Congress terming the film “an effort to defame the Muslims”, Khan said that he will not comment on the political statements because the post he holds doesn’t allow him to do so.

Directed by Sudipto Sen, “The Kerala Story” shows how some women from Kerala were forced to convert to Islam and recruited by the terror group Islamic State (IS). The film was released on May 5. While West Bengal, where the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC is in power, banned the movie after three days of its screening in theatres, Tamil Nadu has not banned the film but the exhibitors have withdrawn from cinema halls owing to security concerns.

In some of the BJP-ruled states, the film has been declared tax-free. On Friday, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his ministerial colleagues watched the film in Lucknow.

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