"Clarify your position": Oppn slams PM Modi on barring women journalists from Afghan FM event

Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. File Pic

Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to clarify his stance on the exclusion of women journalists from the press conference of Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in New Delhi.

She criticised the government for "allowing the insult" of women journalists and questioned whether the Prime Minister's support for women's rights is merely "convenient posturing" that shifts from one election to the next.

In a post on X, Wayanad MP said, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji, please clarify your position on the removal of female journalists from the press conference of the representative of the Taliban on his visit to India. If your recognition of women's rights isn't just convenient posturing from one election to the other, then how has this insult to some of India's most competent women been allowed in our country, a country whose women are its backbone and its pride."

A controversy broke out in New Delhi after Indian women journalists were allegedly barred from attending a press conference held by the Taliban's acting Foreign Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, at the Afghan Embassy.

Former Union Home Minister and senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram expressed shock and disappointment over the incident, stating that male journalists should have boycotted the event in solidarity with their female counterparts.

"I am shocked that women journalists were excluded from the press conference addressed by Mr Amir Khan Muttaqi of Afghanistan. In my personal view, the men journalists should have walked out when they found that their women colleagues were excluded (or not invited)," he said in a post on X.

Congress MP Karti P Chidambaram also criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government over the issue and expressed his disappointment with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

"I understand the geopolitical compulsions that force us to engage with the Taliban, but to accede to their discriminatory & plain primitive mores is outright ridiculous. It's very disappointing to note the conduct of the Ministry of External Affairs and S Jaishankar in excluding women journalists from the press briefing of the Taliban Minister," he said.

The Taliban minister is on a week-long visit to India, beginning from October 9 till October 16. This is the first high-level delegation from Kabul to India since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021.

(With ANI inputs)