Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday came out against the movie ‘The Kerala Story’, saying it is the product of the Sangh Parivar’s lie factory and that it was made with the aim of spreading hatred against Kerala.

In a Facebook post on Sunday, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the movie ‘The Kerala Story’ furthers the propaganda of the Sangh Parivar by portraying Kerala, which is the land of secularism, as the epicentre of religious terrorism.

“The trailer of the Hindi movie ‘Kerala Story’, which at first glance seems to have been deliberately produced with the aim of communal polarization and spreading hate propaganda against Kerala, was released the other day. The indication from the trailer is that this movie is taking up the Sangh Parivar propaganda by placing Kerala, the land of secularism, as the centre of religious extremism,” he said.

“It is a film that takes the still unconfirmed phenomenon of ‘love jihad’ to a whole new level,” he said. Propaganda films and their alienation of Muslims should be viewed in the context of various efforts made by the Sangh Parivar to gain some advantage in electoral politics in Kerala, the CM further said.

“It is only deliberate that the movie is based on ‘Love Jihad’, a claim that was rejected by investigative agencies, courts, and the Union Home Ministry. This is done by the Sangh Parivar to demean Kerala before the world, destroy its secular atmosphere and sow the seeds of communalism,” Chief Minister Vijayan said in the Facebook post.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the Sangh Parivar has come up with a movie based on falsehood as its politics was not fruitful in Kerala. The movie’s teaser puts out a huge lie that 32,000 women from Kerala were converted and enrolled in Islamic State. This is nothing but a false story produced in the Sangh Parivar factory of lies, he said.

Stating that people who use cinema to create divide and factionalism in society cannot be justified in the name of creative freedom, CM Vijayan said “Creative freedom does not mean the license to communalise society and spread lies.

Cautioning people of the state to be vigilant on communal attempts to spread unrest in society through propaganda, the Chief Minister said legal action would be taken against such anti-social acts.

Two months ago, the film’s trailer was released which triggered protests in the state. The film is directed by Sudipto Sen and produced by Vipul Shah . It is claimed that the film is taken in the backdrop of the 2016 missing case of 21 people from north Kerala, who reportedly joined the Islamic State-held areas of Syria and Afghanistan.

A teaser for the film, released in November, was criticised for carrying inaccurate facts about the number of women, who might have been involved in these kinds of situations.

The ruling CPI-M and opposition Congress in the state had earlier lashed out against the movie to be released on 5 May , calling it an attempt to destroy the communal harmony of the state.

Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Kerala Assembly V D Satheesan the other day urged the state government not to give screening permission for the film.

Meanwhile,Muslim League state secretary PMA Salam has the other day criticised the CPI-M, based on a statement made by party veteran VS Achuthanandan some years back. Stating that the film makers are making the statement made by former Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan 13 years back , as a supportive reference in the trailer of the film, Salam asked as to whether the CPI-M’s attitude is the same now.

VS Achuthanandan had some years back said that efforts are being made to turn the state into a Muslim nation in twenty years.