Banned for being patriotic - Kerala!
Assume that you are a theater artist and a patriotic Indian. Your theater group performs a welcome song along with a skit on a theme surrounding Kashmir. The skit depicts the Indian army successfully tackling terrorism in Kashmir. The play also shows a terrorist wearing an Arabic scarf.
Do you find anything wrong with this image? I'm sure no Indian would have a problem with this. However, the left led Islamist supported Kerala state govt doesn't think so and decides to ban your group from the future editions of the festival citing that your skit hurt the religious sentiments of a certain community. Are you shocked?
Well, this is exactly what happened. The controversies surrounding the recently concluded Kerala State Schools Youth Festival 2023 don't seem to be dying down and this is just one more addition to that long list. This didn't become a controversy until a few days after the inauguration when the state PWD minister Mohammed Riyas who is also the son in law of the Kerala CM raked up the issue saying that this hurt the sentiments of Muslims and that there must be a probe into this.
He also said that the connections of the performers with Sangh Parivar must be probed. I mean seriously? This is a nation where the President, Prime Minister, the central cabinet of Ministers, majority of the MPs, state MLAs and state governors are Sangh Parivar members. Just swallow that fact Mr. Riyas. Please understand that essentially this nation is ruled by the Sangh Parivar.
At the drop of a hat, the left liberals jump in and say that terrorism has no religion. If that’s the case, why are you so offended by this play? Why are you offended with the attire of the terrorist in the play? How many times have you seen a saffron clad monk shouting Azadi in Kashmir? People like you are a shame to Islam Mr. Riyas. It is people like you with your covert support to terrorism, that is responsible for the divisions in the society.
Indicating that this was once again carefully orchestrated, the education minister V.Sivan Kutty said that the group Perambra Matha will be banned from future editions of the festival.
The director of Perambra Matha theatre group, Mr. Kanakadas said that Mohammed Riyas is squarely responsible for creating this controversy. He added that he has death threats from extremists ever since this happened.
If you are a patriotic Indian, you will find this to be downright outrageous. But this is Kerala, and this is #Keralamodel! Deal with it!