Ex-FCCI member alleges conspiracy behind cancellation of Vivek Agnihotri's press meet

New Delhi, May 5 (IANS) In the latest twist to the ongoing controversy over the cancellation of Vivek Agnihotri's Press Meet, Pankaj Yadav, a former member of the Foreign Correspondents Club of India, has alleged that five journalists were behind it.

He went on social media and tweeted the names of all saying it was done in a well planned manner.

Agnihotri had booked the FCCI for a press conference on May 5, but it was later cancelled.

Agnihotri later booked a five star hotel to discuss his movie 'The Kashmir Files' on the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits.

Agnihotri in a video said that he had become the victim of a hate campaign.

"Yesterday, an extremely undemocratic, unusual thing happened to me, I became victim of hate campaign and my free speech was banned by the watchdog of the free speech, the media. Few days back global Kashmiri Pandit Diaspora had informed me that Foreign Correspondents Club in New Delhi was very keen to host a press conference as many foreign media wanted to talk to me regarding Kashmir Files and the truth of Kashmiri Pandits Genocide. A PC was also fixed. But I got a call from its president that few powerful media organizations have taken strong objection to this PC and have threatened to resign on mass level if my conference is allowed," said Agnihotri.

Vivek Agnihotri has become the victim of a hate campaign since it has been revealed that journalist-members of the FCC associated with foreign media houses had threatened to pull down Agnihotri's scheduled press conference. He took to Twitter to allege that some powerful media persons had objected to the event while threatening that they would resign en masse if the conference is held. On Wednesday, Journalist Pankaj Yadav revealed on Twitter that PCC President Munish Gupta was threatened by its governing board members to cancel Vivek Agnihotri's press conference.

Yadav, an ex-member of FCCI, claimed on Twitter that Munish Gupta cancelled Agnihotri's conference after office bearers Emily Schmall, Sebastian Farcis, Tawqeer Hussain and Kumkum Chadha threatened to resign.

Yadav was sacked from the FCCI in 2021 due to various reasons.

Meanwhile, Agnihotri's PC was held at a five star hotel in Lutyens Delhi.