Many would be wondering which language the caption is in. It is one of the most frequently used in Kerala, meaning, “Did you understand?” Kerala is often in the news for the wrong reasons. If nature was the reason for the devastating floods in 2018, killing 483 people and leaving 15 others missing, five years later “God’s own country” is again in the limelight for the wrong reason.
Kerala could be India’s Lebanon, with a fair spread of Hindus, Christians, and Muslims who have been living in centuries of amity. Participating in each other’s functions and eating each other’s food is not proscribed in the 100% literate southern state. It is also a heightened centre for the banned PFI, a radical Muslim organization, which led to the growth of balancing right-wing organizations like the RSS, though it is a relatively recent phenomenon. The highly progressive state, with maximum earnings for Indians employed abroad, has strengthened the relationship and interdependence between the Gulf countries and India.
It is not uncommon for cinema producers to ignore the adverse impact of their stories and focus only on the profit they could make, however shocking the story may be. Such a film was ‘The Kashmir Files,’ which dealt with the massacre of the Hindu Pandits and their exodus. India stood divided at the unpalatable truth that lay hidden for so long. The movie, in a commercial sense, was a phenomenal success. I knew that soon there would be movies about Kerala or West Bengal, which have a sizeable Muslim population.
‘The Kerala Story,’ though I have not seen it, presumably depicts the radicalization of Kerala girls who were shipped away to meet the carnal pleasures of the ISIS fighting in some remote corner of the globe. Pinayari Vijayan, the Kerala CM and an otherwise astute politician, made the first mistake by criticizing the movie instead of brushing it off as another propaganda film. The moviemakers were waiting just for this moment to make their film a blockbuster. TN quietly sent out a message to theatres to drop the movie, which the cinema halls obliged by hurriedly pulling down the movie. The CM of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, banned the movie after three days of screening, becoming the first state to do so, citing a law and order problem.
The West Bengal government has taken two distinctly opposite positions. One, to threaten confiscation of properties and arrest for those indulging in riots elsewhere in the state, which are mostly by the ruffled BJP men, for one or other reason. The second is to claim law and order to ban a film. What made the government not announce strict orders of confiscation of property and arrest for any mischief makers over the screening of the film?
If the government, both central and state, has been promoting and cashing in on the bogey of majorities and minorities, how can India ever be one? Does the West Bengal government’s action point to all minorities being sympathizers of ISIS or such militant organizations? Almost all the Muslims I know abhor terrorism and terrorists but are afraid to express it openly. It is time for the moderate Muslims, the intelligentsia, and the literati to wake up and rise against parochial discrimination, be it by the right, left, or centrists. Apprehension of a threat to law and order is like crying wolf. India must grow up, and freedom of expression must not be throttled.
Manasilayo?
Sampath Kumar
Intrèpide Voix
