New Delhi [India], October 11 (ANI): Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi strongly criticised the Modi government after the exclusion of women journalists from a press conference addressed by Afghanistan's Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in New Delhi on Friday.

He said that the exclusion of women scribes from a public forum, the prime minister is telling every woman in India that he is 'too weak to stand up for them.'

https://x.com/RahulGandhi/status/1976887584350728246

In a post on X, Rahul Gandhi said, '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,' the post further reads.

Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi also addressed the issue, asking the prime minister to clarify the government's position.

In a post on X, Wayanad MP said, '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.'

A controversy erupted in New Delhi over a press conference by the Taliban's acting Foreign Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, where Indian women journalists were allegedly barred from attending at the Afghanistan Embassy.

The Taliban minister is on a week-long visit to India, beginning from October 9 till October 16. This is the first high-level delegation from Kabul to India since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021. (ANI)