Modi Govt under fire after female journalists were banned by Afghanistan FM Presser

Prime Minister Narendra Modi-under the leadership of the Indian government has faced a strong reaction after female journalists were banned from attending the press conference of Afghan Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in New Delhi, Indian media reported.

Muttaqi is on a six -day visit after a temporary discharge to ban his travel by the UN Security Council (UNSC). It was the first such trip to India by a leader of the Afghan Taliban from 2021.

India, a day earlier, is upgrading the links with the Taliban administration of Afghanistan, boosting the diplomatically secluded team, announcing that it would reopen its embassy in Kabul that closed after Taliban’s power was seized.

During the visit, the Foreign Minister visits the press conference at the Afghan Embassy in Delhi, where female journalists stopped by security personnel and police officials to attend the event despite multiple requests.

Opposition parties have condemned Modi’s administration for her silence for the exclusion of female journalists from the high profile event, calling for “insult to every Indian woman”.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said women have the right to equivalent to each sector, adding that the incident sends a message that Modi is “too weak to stand for their rights”.

“Mr Modi, when you allow female journalists to be excluded from a public forum, you tell every woman in India that you are too weak to withstand them,” he wrote in X.

“In our country, women have the right to be equal to participation in every space. Your silence in front of such discrimination exposes the gap of your slogans in Nari Shakti [woman power]”He added.

Congress’s senior leader Priyanka Gandhi has asked the Modi government to clarify its position on the issue.

“If the recognition of women’s rights is not just a convenient stance from elections to others, then how this insult has been allowed to some of India’s most capable women in our country, a country whose women are the backbone and its pride,” he asked.

Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram also criticized the handling of the media for the event, saying that male journalists present in the update “should have been in protest”.

The Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra further, hitting the government for the “frustration of every Indian woman” through her complicity. “By allowing such discrimination on Indian territory, the Modi regime has handed over the dignity of the country,” he said.

In the meantime, the Indian Foreign Affairs Ministry of Foreign Affairs was removed from the dispute, arguing that it had no role in the event regulations.

According to the ministry, invitations for the press meeting went to choose journalists from the Afghan Consul General in Mumbai placed in Delhi for the visit of Afghanistan’s minister. The territory of the Afghan Embassy is not involved in the jurisdiction of the Indian government, he said.