PM Modi raises 'The Kerala Story' in Karnataka election speech; says film exposes terror conspiracy (WATCH)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday mentioned the controversial film 'The Kerala Story' during a Karnataka election campaign speech.

"The sound of bombs, guns and pistols is heard but there is no sound of a terrorist conspiracy to hollow the society from within. Even the court has expressed concern over this form of terror. There is a lot of discussions these days about the film 'Kerala Story' based on such a terrorist conspiracy," he said while addressing a public meeting in Bellary.

"It is said that the Kerala story is based on terrorist conspiracies in just one state. The terrorist conspiracy going on in Kerala, such a beautiful state of the country, where people are so hardworking and talented, has been revealed in this film," he added.
 
"Look at the misfortune of the country that today the Congress is seen standing with this terroristic tendency which is destroying the society. Not only this, the Congress is even doing political bargaining through the backdoor with those with such terrorist tendencies," he further added.

The Prime Minister's remarks came even as a Kerala High Court bench comprising Justices N Nagaresh and Sophy Thomas refused to stay the release of the controversial multi-lingual film.

The court noted that the producers have published a disclaimer along with the movie which specifically says that the film has fictionalised and is a dramatised version of events and that the film doesn't claim accuracy or factuality of historic events.  Besides, Justice Nagaresh, who dictated the order said that going through the trailers of the movie, "we find that the trailer does not contain anything offensive to any particular community as a whole." 

The court noted the producers' submission that they will drop an "offending teaser" which contained a claim that 32,000 women from Kerala had been converted and made to join the Islamic State terrorist organisation.

"In view of the disclaimer also, we are not inclined to pass an interim order restraining the respondents from exhibiting the film as such. In view of the above and taking into consideration the statement made by the producer that the producer does not intend to retain the offending teaser in their social media handles, no further orders are necessary for this petition at this stage," the court said. 

'The Kerala Story' starring Adah Sharma released in cinemas on Friday and is portrayed as "unearthing" the events behind women allegedly going missing from Kerala. According to the CPI-M and the Congress in Kerala, the film falsely claims that 32,000 women got converted and radicalised and were deployed in terror missions in India and the world.

• Karnataka Election 2023
• Kerala Story
• Narendra Modi