'The Kerala Story': Will show film to 100 girls to save them from 'love jihad', says UP BJP leader

Lucknow: Amid the ongoing controversy over the movie "The Kerala Story", an Uttar Pradesh BJP leader on Friday said he will show the film to 100 girls and urged others to do the same to save girls from 'love jihad'.

'Love jihad' is a term often used by right-wing activists to allege a ploy by Muslim men to lure Hindu women into religious conversion through marriage.

"Show #Kerla_files to save girls from Love Zehad (sic)," UP BJP secretary Abhijat Mishra said in a tweet in Hindi, in an apparent reference to "The Kerala Story", which was released in cinemas on Friday.

"I will make arrangements to show the movie to 100 girls, you should do the same. Be alert, be safe," he added.

"The Kerala Story", starring Adah Sharma, is written and directed by Sudipto Sen.

The movie is portrayed as "unearthing" the events behind "approximately 32,000 women" allegedly going missing from Kerala.

The plot follows the story of a group of women from Kerala who are converted to Islam and later forced to join terror group ISIS.

The filmmakers claim that the movie is a compilation of true stories of three young girls from different parts of Kerala.

When asked why he feels that the movie should be shown to girls, Mishra told PTI, "Firstly, love jihad is an insult to love. Secondly, they are making our children anti-national." Everyone is free to practice their religion but it is unacceptable to subject others to physical exploitation and push them onto the wrong path, the BJP leader said.

Extremists among Muslims fund such acts and the movie needs to be shown to girls to raise awareness about the issue, he said.

"We have to save our daughters from this," said Mishra, a former national general secretary of the BJP Yuva Morcha.

Many petitions have been filed seeking a ban on the screening of the movie. The Supreme Court and the Kerala High Court have dismissed all such pleas so far.