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Owaisi reacts to BJP leader's The Kerala Story poster attacking Rahul Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee
The speech bubble attributed to Owaisi in the provoking poster on The Kerala Story said: "Neither the government nor the court is listening."
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has reacted to the poster of UP BJP leader Abhijat Mishra where Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav, Mamata Banerjee and Owaisi could be seen taking instruction for a 'masked man' to ban 'The Kerala Story'. "Yeh sab ek hi 'Laila' ke Dewaane hain," Owaisi tweeted. The movie which became controversial because of its claims on the number of Muslim women in Kerala inducted into ISIS has been declared tax-free in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana. The West Bengal government has declared a ban on the movie.
The poster in question surfaced after the ban by the West Bengal government. The four leaders were shown as speaking to someone opposing the movie. "Yes Sir, I am trying my best," Rahul Gandhi was shown as saying while Owaisi was given this dialogue: "Neither the government nor the court is listening."
The team of The Kerala Story, comprising producer Vipul Shah, lead actor Adah Sharma and director Sudipto Sen, met UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath and praised the UP government's law against forced conversion.
As soon as the teaser of the movie dropped, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan called it Sangh Parivar's propaganda, while Kerala Congress MP Shashi Tharoor slammed the makers for their exaggerated claims. "This is not our Kerala story," Tharoor said. BJP leaders on the other hand threw their weight behind the movie with PM Modi mentioning it at a campaign in Karnataka ahead of the elections. The movie was released on May 5 and added more fuel to the controversy as the West Bengal government officially banned the screening; Tamil Nadu theatre owners pulled the movie out citing poor business as there is no big star in the movie.
"Why did they make Kashmir Files? To humiliate one section. What is this Kerala files? If they can prepare Kashmir files to condemn the Kashmiri people... now they are defaming Kerala state also. Every day they are defaming through their narrative," Mamata Banerjee said inviting a legal notice from The Kashmir Files director Vivek Agnihotri.
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the petition by the producers of The Kerala Story challenging the ban in West Bengal -- on May 12.
