Church’s screening of The Kerala Story roils State politics during election time

The contentious screening of the allegedly Islamophobic movie The Kerala Story by the SyroMalabar Church in Idukki last week has roiled Kerala politics.

The Idukki diocese screened the film to ostensibly alert catechism students about the “peril posed by Islamists who seek to enlist impressionable Christian youth to the jihadist cause by using personal intimacy as an inspirational vehicle for conversion (love jihad)“.

The social and political fallout of the muchdisputed screening snowballed on Tuesday, impacting the Lok Sabha campaign in Kerala in more ways than one. For one, it has triggered a heated public debate on the perils of using “polarising propaganda” as an electoral strategy at the hustings.

LDF, UDF worried

The ruling front and the Opposition seemed equally worried that the movie’s allegedly divisive tone had become the very nature of the production’s arguably surreal appeal among certain sections.

The Left Democratic Front and United Democratic Front feared that the Church’s “newfound” focus on the movie’s contentious messaging could foster divisive rhetoric and increase societal polarisation during the Lok Sabha campaign phase.

In contrast, the BJP seemed to see an electoral advantage in the Church’s alleged role as a “powerful echo chamber and bullhorn” for the movie’s controversial implications.

Notably, Tushar Vellappally, a Bharath Dharma Jana Sena leader and National Democratic Alliance ally, and also a candidate for the Lok Sabha election, claimed in Kottayam that bishops were acutely aware of the peril of love jihad, which, he said, the film articulated. The screening has also arguably caused an idealogical fissure between influential Christian denominations.