A fierce political row has erupted in the capital following the press conference by Taliban-controlled Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi on Friday, from which female journalists were conspicuously absent. The event, held at the Afghan embassy following Muttaqi’s talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, immediately drew fire for mirroring the Taliban’s discriminatory policies on gender.
Congress Attacks PM Modi on ‘Nari Shakti’
Leading the opposition’s charge, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He accused the Centre of failing to uphold women’s rights on Indian soil.
“Mr. Modi, when you allow the exclusion of women journalists from a public forum, you are telling every woman in India that you are too weak to stand up for them,” Gandhi wrote in a post on X. He further stated that the Prime Minister’s “silence in the face of such discrimination exposes the emptiness of his slogans on Nari Shakti.”
His sister, Lok Sabha MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, also demanded clarity from the government. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji, please clarify your position on the removal of female journalists from the press conference… 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?” she asked.
BJP Slams Congress’s ‘Hypocrisy’
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) responded sharply, accusing the Congress leaders of hypocrisy and denying the allegations of government involvement.
BJP leader Amit Malviya referenced the controversial overturning of the Supreme Court’s Shah Bano judgment in 1986 by the then Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress government. “It’s ironic to see Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra sermonize about women’s rights,” Malviya posted on X, urging them to revisit their father’s legacy, which he claimed “overturned the Supreme Court’s Shah Bano judgment, denying an elderly Muslim woman her rightful, meagre alimony.”
Separately, BJP spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari hit out at the LoP, calling the Congress the “best friend of Pakistan” and accusing Gandhi of “spreading fake news.” Bhandari also cited the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961, noting that embassy land is ‘inviolable’ and belongs to the embassy.
MEA Clarifies Stance
Amid the growing political outcry and the diplomatic nature of the visit, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) issued a clarification. The MEA highlighted that it had “no role or involvement” in the admission of women to Muttaqi’s press meet in New Delhi.
Sources familiar with the matter indicated that while the Indian side had suggested the inclusion of women journalists, the final decision on invitees for the interaction, held hours after Muttaqi’s bilateral talks with EAM Jaishankar, was taken solely by the Taliban officials accompanying the foreign minister. The Taliban regime has faced global condemnation for its severe restrictions on women’s rights in Afghanistan since seizing power in 2021.