Opposition outrages at women journalists’ exclusion from Afghan FM’s news conference in India
New Delhi: The Opposition was outraged at the exclusion of women journalists from a press conference of visiting Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi at the embassy here, calling it “shocking and unacceptable.”
According to Kashmir Media Service, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said women have the right to equal participation in every space and Modi’s silence “in the face of such discrimination exposes the emptiness of your slogans on ‘nari shakti’ (women power).”
“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,” he posted on ‘X’.
Senior Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra asked Modi to clarify his position on the incident. “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 said
The press conference addressed by Amir Khan Muttaqi, after his talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, on Friday saw participation restricted to a handful of male reporters.
Trinamool Rajya Sabha Deputy Leader Sagarika Ghose, also a former journalist, claimed the government again revealed its “failure to evolve a foreign policy in which engagement is separated from endorsement” while terming the incident a “not oh-so-sma ‘geostrategic diplomacy’ but a surrender by the weak, failed” Modi government.
Trinamool Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra said the Modi government has “dishonoured” every single Indian woman through the incident while adding, “shameful bunch of spineless hypocrites”.
RJD’s Manoj K Jha said India has compromised its own moral and diplomatic standing and this is “not just a procedural lapse but a symbolic surrender” of the country’s long-cherished commitment to equality, freedom of the press, and gender justice.
“…this incident is deeply disappointing and politically short-sighted. It sends out the wrong message to Indian women and the global community that convenience has triumphed over conviction,” he said.
Senior MP P Chidambaram said he was “shocked” and the “men journalists should have walked out when they found that their women colleagues were excluded (or not invited).”
In its official ‘X’ handle, the Congress said the incident reflected the “utter disregard for women’s dignity that has become normal” under the Modi government.
“When the world looks to India, a democracy built on equality, what message are we sending by allowing such discrimination to take place here? We demand answers from the Modi government. How can they let anyone disrespect women on our soil? Or is this the government’s own vision for women — silence, exclusion, and submission? How weak are you, S Jaishankar and Narendra Modi, that you cannot even defend the basic dignity of Indian women in your own country?” it added.
