Will take legal action against Oxford University & Students Union for arbitrarily canceling scheduled lecture: Vivek Agnihotri
Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri, whose recent film Kashmir Files stirred a controversy, has tweeted a video stating that he is going to file a law suit against Oxford University and Union as they canceled and rescheduled a lecture that he was slated to deliver without prior intimation.
In the video, Agnihotri has said that he is in Europe presently on a humanity tour as he was invited to deliver lectures by prestigious institutions like Cambridge, Oxford universities and British Parliament to name a few.
He said “Yesterday, a very strange thing happened at Cambridge university, I was told at the last minute that I cannot video record the event.” Agnihotri alleged that this act curbed his freedom of expression and the same happened because few Pakistani and Kashmiri Muslim students protested against holding of his lecture.
Agnihotri alleged that such people were ‘genocide deniers’ and ‘Fascists’. He said, “Their logic (behind canceling) is because I support a democratically elected Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi.” He claimed that this was being done by the same university where Subash Chandra Bose studied but 150th birth anniversary celebration was cancelled because they claimed Bose was a ‘fascist’.
The filmmaker has said that he was supposed to deliver a lecture at Oxford university today (May 31, 2022) because the Union had invited him a long time ago and the same was confirmed by email. Agnihotri however alleges that just a few hours before he could deliver a lecture, the university claimed that they had made a “double booking” and arbitrarily rescheduled it July 1. He added that this was done because no student will be present on July 1 and there would no point doing such an event.
Agnihotri said “Are they canceling me? No! They want to cancel the democratically elected government of India. They want to label us as fascist people and Islamophobic.” Speaking of his film Kashmir Files, he rhetorically noted “as if killing thousands of Kashmiri Hindus was not Hinduphobic but making a film on it is Islamophobic!”
He alleged that this does not amount to canceling just him but it amounts to canceling the genocide of Kashmiri Hindus and Hindus themselves. The filmmaker stated that one has to understand that Hindus are in minority at Oxford University and the cancelation amounts to oppression of minority and Hinduphobia. He said “This is the same Oxford university which has hosted dictators and fascists including Indira Gandhi, Bhutto’s son and many African dictators with extreme views.”
The filmmaker then urged the people to support him in his cause to sue them and claim damages from them for canceling his lecture arbitrarily.