The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has said it was nowhere involved in the presser held by Afghanistan’s Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in New Delhi on Friday, hours after a row erupted on alleged barring of women journalists from attending the press conference. In an official statement on Saturday, the MEA said it was not involved in the same.

“MEA had no involvement in the press interaction held yesterday by the Afghan FM in Delhi,” the ministry said. The presser was held at the Afghanistan Embassy in New Delhi following bilateral discussions between External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Muttaqi. However, the MEA has denied playing any role in it, distancing itself from the controversy.

However, it drew massive criticism after reports came out that women journalists were not allowed to attend the presser. 

The Taliban regime is known for its oppressive policies towards women and people even questioned the presence of the minister in India. Afghan women and girls face what the UN calls the most severe women’s rights crisis in the world.

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Oppn targets Centre, seeks clarification

Unlike any other bilateral meet, the India-Afghan foreign ministers did not hold a joint press conference, rather Muttaqi held a press meet at Afghanistan embassy. He spoke on regional issues including India-Afghanistan relations, humanitarian assistance, Kabul attack and Bagram airbase among others. In the presser, only a few male journalists were allowed which has irked many.

Congress MP Rahul Gandh took to X and questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “silence” on the same. “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 said.

“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,” Rahul Gandhi added.

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi clarify his position on the incident, and called it “an insult to India’s women journalists.” 

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi 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 said.

TMC MP Mahua Moitra also lashed out at the government and said, “How dare our government allow Taliban foreign minister Amir Muttaqi to exclude women journalists & hold a ‘male-only’ news conference on Indian soil with full protocol? How dare @DrSJAishankar agree to this? & why did our emasculated spineless male journos remain in room?”

Former Union Home Minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram also expressed disappointment and said, “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).”

“(Tali)ban on female journalists in India. Shocking and unacceptable that the Govt of India agreed to it – and that too in New Delhi on the eve of the International Day of the Girl Child,” tweeted senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh.

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India-Afghanistan relation

The visit of Muttaqi was the first such trip by a Taliban leader since the group took over Afghanistan in August 2021. During the bilateral meeting, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar announced that India would upgrade its Technical Mission in Kabul to the status of the Embassy of India.

“India is fully committed to the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Afghanistan. To enhance that, I am pleased to announce today the upgrading of India’s Technical Mission in Kabul to the status of Embassy of India,” Jaishankar said.

The Taliban minister’s visit, which began on October 9 and will continue until October 16, marks the first high-level delegation from Kabul to India since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021.