‘Outright ridiculous’: Opposition questions BJP after women journalists barred at Taliban FM’s presser

Amir Khan Muttaqi with S Jaishankar

Opposition leaders have expressed shock and disappointment after women journalists were barred from attending Afghan foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi’s press conference in New Delhi.

Reacting to it, former union home minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said that male journalists should have boycotted the event in solidarity with their female colleagues.

"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.

Tensions flared in New Delhi as reports emerged that Indian women journalists were barred from attending a press conference by Taliban acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi at the Afghanistan Embassy. The foreign minister is currently on a week-long visit to India and held a bilateral meeting with external affairs minister S Jaishankar on Friday.

Lok Sabha MP from Wayanad Priyanka Gandhi Vadra sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s position on the issue. “Prime Minister @narendramodi 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,” she asked.

Sharing her post, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also questioned PM Modi's silence on the issue. "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. In our country, women have the right to equal participation in every space. Your silence in the face of such discrimination exposes the emptiness of your slogans on Nari Shakti," he said.

TMC MP Mahua Moitra stated: "Govt has dishonoured every single Indian woman by allowing Taliban minister to exclude women journalists from presser. Shameful bunch of spineless hypocrites."

Congress MP Karti P Chidambaram was critical of the BJP government over the issue and expressed his disappointment with EAM S Jaishankar.

"I understand the geopolitical compulsions that force us to engage with the Taliban, but to acede 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.

People familiar with matter told news agency PTI that the Indian side had suggested to the Afghan side that women journalists should be part of the invitees for the event – a recommendation that was evidently not accepted.