The address of The Kashmir Files director Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri to the Oxford Union was cancelled by the Union at the very last moment. In a mail to the director, the Union informed that it had booked two events for the day by mistake and so won’t be able to host him at the scheduled time.
The director also informed that at an event at the Cambridge University the day before, he was informed at the very last moment that he could not video record the event.
“Yet another Hindu voice is curbed at HINDUPHOBIC Oxford Union. They have cancelled me. In reality, they cancelled Hindu Genocide and Hindu students who are a minority at Oxford Univ. The president-elect is a Pakistani. Please share and support me in this most difficult fight,” Agnihotri posted on Twitter.
The director said that killing Hindus in the Valley was not Hinduphobic but making a film showing the face of terrorism is Islamophobic.
In a video message posted along with the tweet, the noted director said, “As you are aware that I am here in Europe on a humanity tour. This tour was decided because lot of prestigious places invited me like Cambridge University, Oxford University, the British Parliament and a lot of places in Germany and the Netherland. But yesterday, a very strange thing happened. When I reached Cambridge University, at the last minute, I was told that we cannot video record the event. Now, this is a 100 per cent curbing of freedom of expression. This happened because a few Pakistani and Kashmiri Muslim students protested against it. These are genocide denials, they are fascists. This is perhaps because I support a democratically elected Government of India,” he said in a video message.”
IMPORTANT:
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— Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) May 31, 2022
The Oxford Union has now scheduled Agnihotri’s event for July 1. Criticising the decision of the Union, Agnihotri 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 they said, ‘Sorry we made a mistake, there was a double-booking and we cannot host you today.’ And without even asking me, they changed the date to July 1, when no student would be there, and there is no point in doing an event.”
This is not the first challenge posed by the vested interests to The Kashmir Files director. Multiple attempts were made from the very beginning to stall the production and release of The Kashmir Files, a movie directed by Agnihotri which shows the real face of terrorism in the Valley.
The movie was released in theatres worldwide in March this year.
In his address to the BJP Parliamentary Party on March 15, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his concern about how the ecosystem was working to discredit The Kashmir Files.
“The entire Jamaat, which claims to be the flag-bearer of freedom of expression, has been furious for the last 5-6 days. Instead of reviewing the film on the basis of facts and art, there’s a conspiracy to discredit it,” PM Modi had said.
Despite all the hurdles put in its place, The Kashmir Files marched to a grand success. Its box office collection crossed 350 crore rupees. The movie has successfully exposed Islamic terrorism in the Valley to a larger audience. There is a global discussion about how terrorists carried out Hindu genocide in the Valley.
