Vivek Agnihotri rejects Oxford Union debate invite on Kashmir, terms topic ‘anti-India’
New Delhi: Filmmaker and author Vivek Agnihotri on Thursday said he had declined the Oxford Union invite to participate in a debate on Kashmir as the topic was “anti-India”.
He shared a post on his social media account, X informing about the invite and his decline. He also posted the letters on his wall.
In his post, Vivek Agnihotri wrote: “I was invited by the prestigious Oxford Union to debate on Kashmir. I found the theme offensive, anti-India, and anti-Kashmir. On principle, I have declined the offer.”
In his letter, the filmmaker further explained: “Thank you for your invitation to grace the Oxford Union with my presence for a debate. Though it is every opinion-maker’s dream to speak at the Oxford Debating Society, I find myself reflecting on the irony of your invitation, and after due consideration, I have decided to respectfully decline. Your invitation to debate ‘This House Believes in the Independent State of Kashmir’ is a direct challenge to India’s sovereignty, and it is unacceptable to me. I find it not just obnoxious but offensive—not just to 1.4 billion Indians, but also as a humiliation of the hundreds of thousands of displaced indigenous Hindu victims of the Kashmir genocide of 1990. Framing it as a debate feels like turning a tragedy into a parlour game, where the stakes are human lives, and the cost is in blood, not just ink.”
“Kashmir’s story is not a debate topic; it is a narrative of suffering, resilience, and a quest for peace. To reduce it to a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on independence is to ignore the complex tapestry of human emotions and history involved. The genocide of Kashmiri Hindus is a story where the cost has been paid in blood, not in witty retorts or applause from an audience,” Agnihotri further said in the post.
Vivek Agnihotri wrote this letter to the Oxford Union on September 2, which he shared on his social media on Thursday.
In 2022, Vivek Agnihotri was widely discussed for his film ‘The Kashmir Files’. While many people appreciated the film, it also faced criticism from others. The film depicts the violence that the minority communities, especially the Kashmir Pandits, faced in the 1990s which forced them to flee their homes. Over seven lakh Kashmiri Pandits fled to escape the violence unleashed by Pakistan-backed various terror outfits.