Oxford Union debate turns into India-Pakistan battle on social media: Here is why

An Oxford Union (OU) debate on Thursday about India's foreign policy towards Islamabad quickly descended into chaos, sparking social media debates on the event, and on India and Pakistan.

The debate on the motion 'This House believes that India’s Policy Towards Pakistan Is a Populist Strategy Sold as Security Policy' was called off before it could begin, a Times of India report said.

The OU is the age-old debating arm of the University of Oxford. Its current president, who is facing backlash over the debate clash, is Moosa Harraj, who is of Pakistani origin and the son of Pakistan’s federal defence production minister, Muhammad Raza Hayat Harraj.

The Indian side included senior lawyer J. Sai Deepak, who had flown in from Delhi and had handled his court cases remotely just to attend the debate.

He was joined by UK-based Jammu & Kashmir activist Manu Khajuria and dharmic scholar Pt Satish K. Sharma, who had joined at the last minute after ex-Army Chief General M.M. Naravane and Dr Subramanian Swamy had withdrawn well in advance.

What sparked India-Pakistan tensions online?

Though the Indian delegation reportedly arrived on time, the debate was cancelled, and they were offered a debate against students instead, which they refused.

The Pakistan High Commission in the UK further fanned the flames, blaming India for "backing out" of the debate, "handing a walkover to the Pakistani side".

Moosa, who organised the debate, has been blamed of "engineering a calculated ploy to force out the Indian contingent from the debate".

Accusing the Oxford Union of becoming a “mouthpiece for the Pakistan High Commission”, Sai Deepak, the Indian lawyer, also claimed that Moosa had called him later that day to tell him that he had already known the Pakistani delegation were not coming.

Pakistan's side included Zubair Mahmood Hayat, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, and Hina Rabbani Khar, former Pakistani foreign minister.

"The Pakistani team, true to its national ethos, has mastered the art of deserting the battlefield even before the battle begins," Deepak added, in an X post.