'It's a story where cost has been paid in blood': Vivek Agnihotri turns down Oxford Union's invitation for a debate on Kashmir

Filmmaker and author Vivek Agnihotri on Thursday said that he turned down an invitation from The Oxford Union Society for a debate over Kashmir as he found the theme "offensive, anti-India, and anti-Kashmir".

In his letter to Ebrahim Osman-Mowafy, President of The Oxford Union Society, the filmmaker said that though it was every opinion maker's dream to speak at the Oxford Debating Society, he found himself reflecting on the irony of the invitation, and after due consideration, "I have decided to respectfully decline".

"Your invitation to debate "This House Believes in an Independent State of Kashmir" is a direct challenge to India's sovereignty, and it is unacceptable to me," he said. "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," said Agnihotri, the director of 'The Kashmir Files' movie, which depicts the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Kashmir Valley in the 1990s due to targeted attacks. 
 
"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," he stated.
 
The filmmaker said that more than 500,000 indigenous Kashmiri Hindus were victims of genocide by Islamic terrorism in the 1990s. "Almost the entire indigenous Kashmiri Hindu population was forced to leave Kashmir, and since then, they have lived in exile. This was the latest and seventh exodus in their history. I am not even including the barbarity of the earlier six. This is not a debate; it is a historical tragedy."

Agnihotri said Kashmir has always been, is, and shall remain an integral part of India, civilisationally, culturally, and politically. "As long as hundreds of thousands of indigenous Kashmiri Hindus remain displaced from their homeland, unable to return due to threats from Islamic terrorists, there cannot be any debate on Kashmir's sovereignty."

In the invitation, the Oxford Union President invited Agnihotri to speak on the debate, titled:  'This House Believes in an independent state of Kashmir'. Ebrahim called the filmmaker's Kashmir Files 'controversial' but 'necessary', and added that Agnihotri is one of the most well-equipped individuals to talk on this challenging topic.

For the proposition, the society had invited British MP Naz Shah and the current Defence Minister of Pakistan. Besides Agnihotri, a Supreme Court Justice was to be invited from India.