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Congress leader Rashid Alvi criticized the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led central government for the absence of women journalists at a press conference organized by Afghanistan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaki and claimed that Prime Minister Modi bowed before the Afghan minister.
Alvi held the Center responsible for the move rather than the Afghan minister. Rashid Alvi told news agency ANI on Saturday, “It is understandable that the Prime Minister will bow before Trump and China, but the Indian government will bow before Amir Khan Muttaqi, who does not allow women to attend press conferences. This cannot be condemned enough… Amir Khan Muttaqi is not responsible for this; the Indian government is.”
Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaki’s press conference at the Afghanistan Embassy in New Delhi on Friday, where Indian women journalists were reportedly not allowed to attend, has sparked a political controversy.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Saturday clarified that it was not involved in the press conference organized by Afghanistan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaki in Delhi.
Earlier, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi condemned the absence of women journalists from the press conference, calling it “very unfortunate” and reflective of the Taliban’s mentality.
He said, “This is very unfortunate. Everyone knows what kind of Taliban mentality this is. Women are being tortured in Afghanistan. I had also said yesterday that whenever our Foreign Minister meets him, he should raise the issue of what is happening to women there.”
Chaturvedi urged the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to address the issue by raising concerns about the treatment of women in Afghanistan and letting the Taliban know that such actions are contrary to India’s constitutional values of press freedom and gender equality.
He said, “What happened to women journalists yesterday happened in the Afghan embassy. It may not be under the control of the Ministry of External Affairs, but I hope the Ministry of External Affairs will take cognizance of it and write a letter to the Taliban to address it, saying that the practices and norms in our country are as per our Constitution. We also have freedom of the press and equality. Women are given equal status. It is very shameful to exclude them like this.”
Muttaqi is on a week-long visit to India from October 9 to October 16. This is India’s first high-level delegation from Kabul since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021.
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