India First | Spare India! Lessons from 'The Kerala Story'

Watched The Kerala Story and was immensely impressed with brilliant presentation of how extremely radical organisations such as the ISIS has recruited agents who send fighters and sex slaves for ISIS fighters in Syria. None of my family members found the movie to be anti-Islam and they all agreed that the movie was against crime being perpetrated by vested interests who have been working for the ISIS. One wished that the movie could have avoided explicit sex scenes the way Kashmir Files did. The module is simple. The fugitive on the run (a Muslim boy facing criminal charges) who can be guided to fight in the name of Jihad is the best recruit. A Hindu girl converted to Islam using guile is the best bet to go to Syria to become sex slaves. The maulanas acting as agents of the ISIS would not like a Muslim girl to go there. Strange! Or they know the fate and the outrage this may produce within the community. I am aghast at the reaction of Muslims in India and those secularists who think the movie is against Muslims or Islam. One of my Muslim friends called it a propaganda movie. Entrapping gullible girls and recruiting them to become ISIS fighters is a crime of the worst order that needs condemnation from everyone. Every citizen must work against this and help the security agencies fight this new phenomenon. This movie creates awareness and hence the decision by States to make it tax-free should be welcomed. Why should a State ban it or lie silent when radicals are demanding a ban. It should not become a victim of political gerrymandering to consolidate vote bank. Conversion is not banned but conversion using guile, deceit and ulterior motives is banned and falls within the purview of crime. What has been depicted in The Kerala Story is crime against humanity and the way anti-India forces are trying to weaken the foundation of a secular state by imposing one way of thought and practices on others. It is one thing to believe in being a member of a supremacist religion, but it is another thing to extend this to show others in bad light or belittle others. The movie has carefully avoided giving the counter arguments to those who claim their religion to be supremacist. What Fatima in the movie has said are the words often spoken by fugitive Zakir Naik who tried to poison Muslim youths by giving spurious arguments. One counter and the entire edifice falls to the ground and the radicals start talking of beheading (ser tan se Juda). The talk about love-jihad should not surprise anyone. This first came as a phenomenon when Kerala Church spoke about this and not Hindus. The Syro-Malabar Church raised the issue in 2009 but it was buried as not-proved. The same Church strongly raised the issue in 2020 when it charged that Christian girls were being made victims of Love jihad and were being sent to ISIS. The movie has used the ISIS module to depict the various stages of converting a non-Muslim girl into Islamic faith. Hijab is shown as a weapon that protects women from sinful eyes of men? As if all non-hijab wearing women are targets of sexual predators. The hijab argument is a threat to non-Muslim women that accept Islam or face the Islamic goons out on the streets to discipline them. The State has lost its power, more so in Kerala and West Bengal where members of a community can do whatever they want. The police would not act on the pretext of not getting sufficient evidence. This movie should appeal to Muslims intellectuals to condemn such acts and not lie silent. They would anyway be silenced if they live in a Sharia governed State. This is their time to assert and save their liberty which India’s vibrant democracy gives them. Women as it is are the worst suffers in an ISIS ordained Sharia governed country. Muslim women in particular should watch this movie to know what would be their fate if India loses its secular character. And this movie is a wake-up call to Hindus to learn their scriptures and the stories. All religions have some stories that may appear to be unreal or ludicrous. There is nothing to be ashamed of. Sanatan tradition is one of the oldest religions and it did not come against any form of worship since it had no role model. It evolved with better practices and made the Hindu way of life possible. The problem is our thought leaders do not know much about other religions and the trends and the inconsistencies. Only when one knows them one can evaluate and find the virtues of one’s own faith. One need not condemn others but one can definitely appreciate and strengthen a religion that has upheld dharma at all cost and has given primacy to individuals in fulfilment of his aspirations and participating in the evolution of society into a better entity. The Indian theological tradition has always upheld religious discourses to evaluate what is good for human kind. Somewhere in the chase for money and power we seem to be losing this unique quality. Not abuses but logic, arguments and demonstrative examples are the virtues of Sanatan Dharm. Before calling Sanatan tradition archaic and traditional, one should read the Vedas and the Upanishads. The Bhagwat Geeta is the ultimate rational arguments that any religions can give to understand human beings and the reason for their existence. Now that the social media has provided a unique platform that is open to all, a debate is possible. India has to adjust to the realities of various faiths existing together like a mosaic. India had the option to carve out a Hindu State during the Partition but true to the Sanatan Spirit, it opted for a secular State which has been its character since time immemorial. The radical Islamists should know that nobody would gain by their dubious design. People of all faiths must live together and tolerate each other. And if one really feels that one needs Sharia law one can always opt out and go to one such countries. Spare India! The writer is the convener of the media relations department of the BJP and represents the party as a spokesperson on TV debates. He has authored the book ‘Narendra Modi: The Game Changer’. The views expressed are personal. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook ,  Twitter  and  Instagram .