VASAI: A video, purportedly from Maharashtra's Palghar district, showing people in a cinema hall chanting slogans and pledging to boycott Muslims socially and economically has triggered strong reactions.
Reacting to claims by a Congress MP that the viral video was shot in a cinema hall in Vasai on March 10, a senior police official from the Mira-Bhayandar Vasai-Virar (MBVV) Police Commissionerate told PTI on Tuesday that the veracity of the video is yet to be ascertained.
"We are not sure where it was shot and believe it could be mischief by some unscrupulous elements," the police official said.
The MP claimed that the video shows a group of people taking the oath to boycott Muslims after watching the controversial film 'The Kerala Story 2'.
Syed Naseer Hussain, a Rajya Sabha member of the Congress, shared the video on X.
"In Vasai, Palghar, after a free screening of the film The Kerala Story on March 10, participants reportedly took a collective oath calling for the economic and social boycott of Muslims.
"The continued encouragement of propaganda-driven narratives under the BJP government has increasingly targeted Muslims and deepened communal polarisation. When cinema is deployed as a political instrument to stigmatise an entire community, it risks turning prejudice into organised discrimination and further emboldening anti-Muslim sentiment," he said on X.
"India's democratic ethos rests firmly on secularism, equality and fraternity. Calls for economic or social boycotts of any community strike at the very spirit of the Constitution of India and must be firmly rejected to preserve the plural and inclusive character of our Republic," the MP said.
Another user @Nher_who posted on X: "In Vasai, Hindus took an oath to boycott Muslims economically & socially after watching Kerala Story. This was the only motive of the Movie which it has achieved."
He said fuel and oil come from Muslim countries. Even maths has a Muslim contribution, he added. "Will they boycott petrol, diesel, and maths now?" he asked.
Since its release in 2023, The Kerala Story, and its sequel released in February this year, have been at the centre of intense political and cultural debate. Supporters claim the films expose uncomfortable truths, while critics argue that they exaggerate and promote divisive narratives.