A major political row erupted on Saturday after Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi “clarify his position” on the exclusion of women journalists from the press conference of Afghanistan’s acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in New Delhi.

In a scathing post on X, Priyanka accused the Modi government of allowing an “insult” to India’s women journalists, questioning whether the Prime Minister’s celebration of women’s empowerment is “just convenient posturing during elections.”

“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,” she wrote. “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?” Priyanka said.

The controversy broke out after reports surfaced that female journalists were barred from attending the press briefing held at the Afghanistan Embassy in Delhi, addressed by Taliban’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, who is in India on a week-long visit (October 9–16) — the first by a high-ranking Taliban delegation since the group seized power in Kabul in 2021.

Senior Congress leader and former Home Minister P. Chidambaram expressed shock and disappointment, saying male journalists should have boycotted the event in solidarity with their female colleagues. “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),” he said in a post on X.

Congress MP Karti P. Chidambaram also slammed the BJP government and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, calling the incident “a disgrace to India’s democratic values.” He posted, “I understand the geopolitical compulsions that force us to engage with the Taliban, but to accede to their discriminatory and primitive mores is outright ridiculous. It’s very disappointing to note the conduct of the Ministry of External Affairs and S. Jaishankar in excluding women journalists from the press briefing of the Taliban Minister.”

The incident has sparked widespread outrage on social media, with critics accusing the Modi government of “bowing to Taliban diktats” and undermining India’s image as a champion of women’s rights.