The Narendra Modi led BJP government has been slammed by Indian politicians and journalists after the regime excluded female journalists from attending an event at Afghan enbassy.
During the visit of Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi at the Afghan embassy in India, around 16 male reporters were selected with no women presence.
Rahul Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha lashed out the government saying that “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. 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,” he added.
Mr Gandhi’s post followed Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s earlier message, in which she asked whether the prime minister’s recognition of women’s rights was “just convenient posturing from one election to another”, and questioned how such an “insult to some of India’s most competent women” could have been permitted.
Chidambaram 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)”
On the other hand, Pakistan raised strong objections to certain elements of the India-Afghanistan Joint Statement issued in New Delhi on October 10, as well as to recent remarks made by Afghanistan’s Acting Foreign Minister during his visit to India.
According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (FO), Pakistan’s concerns were formally conveyed to Afghanistan’s Ambassador in Islamabad by the Additional Foreign Secretary for West Asia and Afghanistan.
The Foreign Office said that Pakistan rejected the reference to Jammu and Kashmir as part of India, terming it a “clear violation” of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions and the internationally recognised legal status of Jammu and Kashmir.
“The Joint Statement is highly insensitive to the sacrifices and sentiments of the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir in their just struggle for the right to self-determination,” the statement said.
Pakistan also strongly dismissed the Afghan Acting Foreign Minister’s comments that terrorism was an internal problem of Pakistan.
The Foreign Office stated that Islamabad had repeatedly shared evidence with Kabul regarding the presence of “Fitna-e-Khawarij and Fitna-e-Hindustan” terrorist groups operating from Afghan soil with support from elements inside Afghanistan.
