Amidst the ongoing controversy over the movie “The Kerala Story,” a clip from an old interview of former Kerala Chief Minister and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPIM or CPM) stalwart V S Achuthanandan from the year 2010 is making the rounds on social media. The leader can be heard warning about the impending objective of Muslim fundamentalists including the Popular Front of India (PFI) to turn Kerala into a Muslim state.
“Their plan is to make Kerala a Muslim state in the next 20 years. For that, they are luring youngsters, offering them money and insisting them to marry Hindu girls to increase the Muslim population. This is how they are growing their majority and these tricks are working,” he expressed.
Their plan is to make Kerala a Muslim state in the next 20 years. For that they are luring youngsters. Offering them money. Insisting them to marry Hindu girls to increase Muslim population. This is how they are growing their majority. And these tricks are working!
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) May 3, 2023
– V S… pic.twitter.com/V7mmaT6aZa
Notably, V S Achuthanandan is a veteran communist leader who was foresighted to the brewing dangers of Muslim zealots in the southern state. Prior to this, he had also addressed the growing influence of both Muslim and Christian communalism in the state. He emphasised that certain sections of these religions were attempting to advance their communal agenda.
He had reiterated the accusations put forth by religious organisations regarding fundamentalist groups on the practice of love jihad. While Kerala Catholic Bishops Council had asserted that more than 4,500 girls in Kerala have been the target of Muslim fanatics, outfits like Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam have maintained that an effort is being made to convert members of the Hindu community to Islam.
The ex-member of Politburo had remarked that terrorists were creating grave problems in the state. “PFI provided training funds and weapons to children to kill rivals in its previous iteration as the National Development Front (NDF). They were now making an effort to project a positive image by planning freedom parades on Independence Day.” He added that the parade was prohibited by several district authorities.
The incumbent CM of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan, had also come out in defence of his political rival. “The reaction to V S Achuthanandan’s comments proves the nexus between the militants and the United Democratic Front (UDF),” he proclaimed in response to the criticism that followed the latter’s statement.
Prakash Karat, the general secretary of the CPM, had also discussed the PFI actions in relation to the danger posed by Muslim terrorism. When talking about the rise in terrorist activity in the country, the party specifically referred to the organisation and noted the interconnection between communalism and the spawning of such terrorist activities.
On 4 July 2010. T. J. Joseph, a professor of Malayalam at Newman College, at Thodupuzha, a Syro Malabar Catholic institution of higher education affiliated with Mahatma Gandhi University had his hand cut off at the wrist on an allegation of blasphemy by the members of PFI.
In response to the attack, Kerala’s Education Minister M. A. Baby announced on August 4, 2010, that the state would outlaw the Freedom Parade, an annual PFI event held on August 15, India’s Independence Day, where its cadres march in synchronised formations through the cities of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
The Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Taiba and al Qaeda are just a few of the terrorist organisations that PFI has been linked to, according to information that was provided to the state High Court of Kerala by investigators on September 6 of the same year.
The argument in this regard was made by R. Rajashekharan Nair, Deputy Secretary (Home), in a counter affidavit submitted in a Public Interest Litigation brought by a citizen named Gireesh Babu who sought to have the PFI banned and the National Investigation Agency take over the investigation into the attack on the lecturer.
PFI was founded in 2006 with the merger of the Karnataka Forum for Dignity (KFD), Manitha Neethi Pasarai (MNP) of Tamil Nadu and the National Development Front (NDF) of Kerala. It is important to note that on 28 September 2022, the Government of India declared the group as an unlawful association and banned it for five years under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act also known as UAPA Act.
Kerala government’s official number on conversions
In a report that was presented to the Kerala Assembly in 2012, the then-chief minister Oommen Chandy of the Congress party reported that 7,713 persons had converted to Islam between 2006 and 2012. He presented the facts in response to a query posed by K. K. Lathika, a leader of the CPM. He pointed out that 2,667 girls embraced Islam between 2006 and 2009.
The figures affirmed that women made up the majority of individuals who converted to Islam during this time, and marriage was the primary incentive for them. It also emphasised the need for the government to guarantee that religious conversion is voluntary and not forced and to raise awareness among young people about the repercussions of the same.
Furthermore, Muslims make up about 26.56% of Kerala’s overall population, according to the 2011 India Census. The state now has a comparatively high percentage of Muslims living in it. According to the data, the Muslim population increased at a pace of 12.8% between 2001 and 2011, which is significantly greater than Kerala’s 4.9% total population growth rate over the same time period.
Charges of love jihad
In his pastoral letter to be read in local churches on Easter this year, Metropolitan Archbishop Mar Joseph Pamplany of Thalassery (formerly Tellicherry) Archdiocese, Syro-Malabar Church in Kerala, expressed his serious concerns over the matter, which he called love traps (love jihad). He appealed for their prevention in light of the worrisome increase in incidents of girls being tricked by Muslim men who coerce them into love traps.
In 2022, the archbishop proclaimed that the love traps that target young women linked with the Christian community are real and that he is basing the assertions on credible evidence.
The Thalassery archdiocese specified in a pastoral letter in September of last year that terrorist organisations use these love traps to find and lure naive Christian women.
The twin issues of love jihad and narcotic jihad were covered by Pala Bishop Mar Joseph Kallarangatt in his sermon in the Kottayam area in September 2021. He stated that by claiming to be in love, jihadis entrap and then expose Christian females to exploitation, coerced conversion to another religion (Islam), and terrorist activities.
The Bishop declared, in 2020, that those who argued that love jihad doesn’t exist in Kerala are blind to reality. “Such people, be they politicians or those from social and cultural spaces, media may have their own vested interests. But one thing is clear. We are losing our young women. It is not just about love marriages. It’s a war strategy to destroy their lives,” he had pronounced.
During the previous three years, approximately 12 Christian women, as per Kerala’s Syro-Malabar Church, underwent conversions to Islam and were transported to Syria, where some of them may have even died.
The synod (council of bishops) of the church, led by Cardinal George Alencherry, said that the 21 women who went to Syria after being recruited by the IS in 2016 included the 12 Christian women who converted to Islam.
In 2019, Vice-Chairman of the National Commission for Minorities George Kurian voiced that he had addressed a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah requesting an investigation into incidents of love jihad committed by extremist Islamic groups in Kerala.
In 2015, the mouthpiece of the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council, Jagratha, produced a report affirming that between 2005 and 2012, 4,000 young females converted to Islam.
The case of Nimisha Fatima
Nimisha Fathima also known as Fathima Isa, a Hindu from Kerala whose real name was Nimisha Sampath married an alleged Islamic State operative. Both were reported missing, along with 19 others from Kerala in June 2016 before reaching an ISIS-ruled territory in Afghanistan.
She, Merin Jacob P. alias Mariyam, Sonia Sebastian alias Ayesha, and Rafala Ijas, all of whom were from Kerala, went to the Afghan province of Nangarhar between 2016 and 2018 together with their spouses who were from Kasargod or Palakkad.
Nimisha Fathima married Bexin Vincent, an MBA graduate from Palakkad, in 2016. They both changed their names to Fathima and Isa after converting to Islam. Bestin Vincent alias Yahiya, the brother of Bexin, was the husband of Merin Jacob P. In 2011, Sonia Sebastian got married to Kasargod native Abdul Rashid Abdulla, who the NIA has identified as the driving force behind the entire migration. Ijas Kallukettiya Purayil, a physician who was also from Kasargod, was the spouse of Rafala.
The Kerala Story
V S Achuthanandan’s alarming revelation also made into the teaser of The Kerala Story where he is stating, “Popular Front is determined to make Kerala an Islamic state. Like the banned organization NDF, its aim is to convert Kerala into a Muslim state in the next 20 years.”
The film is under attack by liberals and opposition parties particularly the left and the Congress who are referring to it as propaganda cinema and want it banned. It is directed by Sudipto Sen and narrates the story of a young Hindu girl named Shalini Unnikrishnan who converted to Islam with the help of her Muslim companions. She married a Muslim and fled to a territory ruled by ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) also known as IS (Islamic State) with her spouse. The film is scheduled to release in theatres on 5 May 2023.
Watch the trailer below:
