While Supreme Court lawyer J Sai Deepak provided a concrete timeline of events, the Pakistan High Commission in the UK claimed that the Indian delegation withdrew at the last moment, lacking “confidence,” even without an iota of proof.
Did Pakistan walk out of a debate against India at the UK’s iconic Oxford Union even before it started? And did it subsequently pin the blame on the Indian delegation for not showing up when they actually did?
The quizzical turn of events on Thursday was blown open by a tweet from the Pakistan High Commission in the UK, which accused Indian speakers of backing out at the last moment from a debate titled “India’s Policy Towards Pakistan is a Populist Strategy Sold as Security Policy,” thereby handing a “walkover,” as it claimed.
“The Pakistani speakers had already arrived in #London and were scheduled to proceed to #Oxford today. Earlier this morning, however, the Oxford Union informed the organisers that all three Indian speakers had decided to pull out, offering no substantive explanation for their inability to attend a debate they had previously confirmed,” wrote the Pakistan High Commission in the UK.
According to the Pakistan High Commission, the speakers from their side included former Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, the country’s envoy to the UK Mohammad Faisal, and former army general Zubair Mahmood Hayat.
The tweet also listed former Chief of Army Staff General MM Naravane, Subramanian Swamy, and former Deputy Chief Minister of Rajasthan Sachin Pilot among India’s speakers.
Back in Islamabad, Pakistani news anchor Wajahat Kazmi was rejoicing Pakistan’s “intellectual win,” claiming that “the Indian side attempted to offer little-known, lower-tier replacements who did not match the standard of the announced Pakistani panel.”
‘SHAMELESS AND DESPERATE SPIN FROM AATANKISTAN’
Quick to rebut the Pakistani claim of events, senior advocate J Sai Deepak said he had been confirmed as a speaker, with MM Naravane and Subramanian Swamy as the other speakers from the Indian side.
Sai Deepak also posted an email from the Oxford Union confirming his participation in the November 27 event last month.
Dismissing the Pakistan High Commission in the UK’s tweet, Deepak wrote, “Trust the Pakistanis to make a pigsty even out of the @OxfordUnion. And as always, they are genetically incapable of being truthful.”
Deepak said he was later informed by the Oxford Union that neither Swamy nor Naravane could attend the event, and he was asked to suggest alternatives.
“Before I could get back to the Union with alternatives, they called me to inform that they had reached out to Mr. Suhel Seth & Ms. Priyanka Chaturvedi, and that they had confirmed. I thought that was the end of the matter,” he went on.
However, Deepak was informed that both Seth and Chaturvedi had cancelled “because of the short notice.”
The same was confirmed by the Shiv Sena (UBT) MP, who said that the Oxford Union had actually reached out to her in July and that she had accepted their invitation on the condition that it would not clash with any Parliament session.
“Then they disappeared all this while and mailed me out of the blue on 25th November asking me to confirm my presence, for which they got a stinker from me for their unprofessional conduct and I refused to be party to such pathetic management. Shameless and desperate spin once again from Aatankistan,” Chaturvedi clarified on X.
Despite the odds stacked against him, Deepak went to the UK and even managed to put together a team comprising Manu Khajuria and Pt Satish K Sharma, who are based in the UK, at the last moment.
Deepak then pointed out that three hours before the debate dinner, he received a call from the Union informing him that the debate had been cancelled because the Pakistani side hadn’t arrived in the UK.
“Obviously, I was unhappy given the time & effort that had gone into this. I conveyed my displeasure at the abysmal handling of the event,” Deepak wrote.
Deepak even shared his call log on his X thread to show that he had received a call from the organiser, Moosa Harraj, who was apologising for cancelling at the last moment.
