'No Role': Centre Amid Row Over No Women Journalists At Taliban Press Meet
India on Saturday asserted that it had "no role to play" in the press conference addressed by Afghanistan's Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in New Delhi - which sparked outrage as no women were 'allowed' in it.
According to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the invites for the press meet went to select journalists from Afghanistan's Consul General in Mumbai who were stationed in Delhi for the Afghan minister's visit. The Afghan Embassy territory does not come under the jurisdiction of the Indian government, it pointed out.
Women were missing at the press conference held on Friday at the Afghanistan Embassy. Some female journalists were also allegedly stopped from entering the meet. Shortly after the press meet, many journalists expressed their anger on social media and also pointed out that all women reporters had respected the dress code.
The Taliban government in Afghanistan is known for the restrictions it imposes on women, especially barring them from working. Recently, it even banned books authored by women in Afghan universities and dropped 18 courses, including Gender and Development, Women's Sociology, Human Rights, Afghan Constitutional Law, and Globalisation and Development.
Opposition leaders have also questioned the Centre over the alleged 'ban' on women at the event.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to "clarify" his position on the incident. She asked how the "insult to some of India's most competent women was allowed in our country, a country whose women are its backbone and its pride".
Former minister P Chidambaram said the male journalists should have walked out of the press meet when they found out women were not allowed at the event. "I am shocked that women journalists were excluded from the press conference addressed by 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.
Muttaqi arrived in India on Thursday and held talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar a day later. The meeting was seen as a big reset of ties, with India announcing that the technical mission in Kabul would be upgraded to an embassy - which was welcomed by the Afghanistan foreign minister.
Jaishankar, during the announcement, said, "India is fully committed to the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independence of Afghanistan. I am pleased to announce the upgrading of India's Technical Mission to the status of Embassy". He also spoke about a "deep interest" in Afghanistan's development and progress, pointing to many existing India-backed projects in that country, and committed to six more.
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