On May 31, filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri shared on Twitter that Oxford Union has cancelled his Humanity Tour event at Oxford University. Agnihotri has promoted the event through ‘I Am Buddha’ Foundation but now apparently Oxford Union has scrapped it.
Filmmaker, best selling author @vivekagnihotri and National Award winning actor, producer #PallaviJoshi will be speaking on INDIA ONENESS & HUMANISM at @UniofOxford tonight at 8 PM.#HumanityTour pic.twitter.com/AgmkGZ95Kj
— #IAmBuddha Foundation (@i_ambuddha) May 31, 2022
In his tweet, Agnihotri mentioned that the President-elect of the Oxford Union is a Pakistani. He wrote, “Yet another Hindu voice is curbed at HINDUPHOBIC Oxford Union. They have cancelled me. In reality, they cancelled Hindu Genocide & Hindu students who are a minority at Oxford Univ. The president-elect is a Pakistani. Please share & support me in this most difficult fight.”
IMPORTANT:
— Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) May 31, 2022
Yet another Hindu voice is curbed at HINDUPHOBIC @OxfordUnion.
They have cancelled me. In reality, they cancelled Hindu Genocide & Hindu students who are a minority at Oxford Univ. The president elect is a Paksitani.
Pl share & support me in this most difficult fight. pic.twitter.com/4mGqwjNmoB
In the video message posted by Agnihotri, he also explained how he was not allowed to record the session at Cambridge University that had happened on May 30. He said, “I am on a humanity tour in Europe. This tour was decided because a lot of prestigious places like Cambridge University, Oxford University, British Parliament had invited me. But yesterday, a very strange thing happened. At Cambridge University, when I reached there, I was told at the last minute that I could not video record the event. Now, this is 100% curbing of freedom of expression. This happened because a few Pakistani and Kashmiri students protested against it. These are genocide deniers, they are fascist. Their logic is perhaps I support democratically elected Prime Minister of India Mr Narendra Modi.”
Oxford event cancelled at last minute
Agnihotri said his event at Oxford was cancelled at the last minute. He said, “Now another strange thing happened. Today I was supposed to speak at Oxford University because Oxford Union invited me a long time ago. It was all confirmed via emails, but just a few hours before that, they said sorry we made a mistake. There was a double booking, and therefore we cannot host you today, and without even asking me, they changed the date to July 1 because, on July 1, no student would be there, and there will be no point doing an event.”
‘They are cancelling Hindus’: Vivek Agnihotri
Agnihotri further added that cancelling the event would not have an effect on him as they were not cancelling him but the government of India. “They want to cancel the democratically elected government of India, especially Mr Narendra Modi. They want to label us as fascist people and Islamophobic. Killing thousands of Kashmiri Hindus was not Hinduphobic but making the film on the truth is Islamophobic.”
Agnihotri pointed out that Hindus are in the minority at Oxford. He said, “They are cancelling Hindus. You have to understand Hindus are in the minority at Oxford University, and this is the oppression of the minority. This is Hinduphobia. This is fascism. This is the same Oxford University which has hosted dictators and fascists including Indira Gandhi and Bhutto’s son and many African radical extremists.”
Speaking to OpIndia, Agnihotri said he would be taking legal action in the matter. He said, “I am filing a lawsuit against them. I am going to claim all the damages.” He further added that Oxford Union told him there was a double booking but it was just an excuse.
When OpIndia checked Oxford Union’s calendar, there was no other booking for the same time slot. Agnihotri’s event is still listed in the calendar at the time of publishing this report. The event details read, “Vivek Agnihotri is a highly-acclaimed Bollywood film director, screenwriter and author. His recent films, The Tashkent Files and The Kashmir Files became blockbuster hits shortly after their release, with the former winning the National Film Award. Having convened the 48th International Film Festival of India, Mr Agnihotri has since sat on the board of India’s Central Board of Film Certification. He is also a cultural representative at Indian Council for Cultural Relations.”
Oxford South Asian Society ran a campaign against Agnihotri
Former President-elect at Oxford Rashmi Samant shared a post on Twitter showing how a campaign was being run against Agnihotri’s event.
Oxford India Society and Oxford South Asian Scoiety full of lies, hinduphobia (as usual) and radical Islamist apologists. They are at it again to whitewash the Kashmiri Pandit genocide of which @vivekagnihotri is a strong campaigner. Goebellian lies won’t change the truth! pic.twitter.com/Egui0KGJ9h
— Rashmi Samant (@RashmiDVS) May 29, 2022
The campaign was initiated by the Oxford South Asian Society. The post read, “Protest against Vivek Agnihotri at Oxford Union. Vivek Agnihotri is an Indian Filmmaker accused of sexual harassment. He is known as Islamophobe, Casteist and Misogynist.”
Interestingly, the same organization has invited controversial Pakistani Journalist Hamid Mir, who is well-known for his anti-India and anti-Hindu views.
