Some politicians and feminists are screaming that it is outrageous that the Taliban could display its misogyny on Indian soil by barring women journalists – both Indian and foreign – from attending a Press conference addressed by Afghanistan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi at its Embassy in New Delhi on 10 October. Only 16 male reporters were selected for the event. Some of the women journalists, bristling with anger for becoming victims of the unprecedented gender discrimination, said among the issues they had plans to raise with Muttaqi was the plight of Afghan women who have been robbed of their democratic rights by the Taliban government. These same women journalists have been totally quiet and distanced in matters relating to women’s problems within India. Hardly any of them can claim to have a record of questioning India’s ministers in matters of harassment and deprivation of women at home. Questioning a visiting foreign minister and showing journalistic bravado underpins a dangerous trend.
It is essential to remember that the grounds and building(s) of any Embassy of a country in the capital city of another country is considered as a part of that foreign country. In other words, the press conference held in the Afghanistan Embassy premises in New Delhi ought to be considered as having been held inside Afghan territory and not on Indian soil. It is also quite possible that some of the women journalists of Delhi might have expressed publicly what kind of questions they wished to raise if given an opportunity to grill Muttaqi. This could have prompted or instigated the Embassy staff tasked with preparing the invitee list to weed them out and not allow any unsavoury incident to take place. Any person with reasonable responsibility would like to avoid trouble on his beat.
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The Indian government has acted wisely and not yet uttered a single word in this regard. The Afghan minister at an event later said his country’s Embassy in Delhi was not to blame for the incident. However, there is no official word from the Embassy at the instructions of which women journalists were excluded from the Press conference. The government of India must not allow itself to be pushed around and must remain above such squabbles.
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Every nation has its own morals and social situations. It is without doubt a terrible situation for women in Afghanistan. While saying this, we in India must also be very aware of the prevailing conditions for women in our country too. Except for women from rich and prosperous families, safety and the very existence of women, both young and old, belonging to middle and lower economic strata is highly deplorable. Rape is a common crime across the country today. All that is being done is to politicise those horrible incidents and brush them under the carpet after a few days of media coverage. When media moves on to new events and forgets heinous crimes of the very recent past the Indian society at large also moves on to the new branch that is dangling and refuses to take corrective steps about past crimes. Our judiciary is a big agent in helping this immediate amnesia. Unfortunately, these very same women journalists rarely, if ever, are noticeable in their efforts to rake up past issues of women’s harassment in their own media. Follow up stories on plight of women in India are not dime a dozen in this country.
The most important aspect of Muttaqi’s visit is that after a long gap of nearly four plus years, the Taliban is now looking at India for acceptance. They might have realised that singularly Pakistan might not be their only saviour nation. Breaking free from the China-Pak axis to visit India, and that too for a long period of over a week marks a momentous period for Gov’t of India which has successfully managed to alienate all the neighbouring countries that were good friends till recently.
Muttaqi is in India for a week of high-level talks with the government. He had already met Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, who announced that India would reopen its Embassy in Kabul. It is the Taliban’s highest-level visit to India since they seized power for the second time. Muttaqi is to discuss diplomatic, trade and economic ties with Indian officials during an eight-day stay.
Meanwhile, intense clashes erupted along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border on night of 11 October after an attack by the Taliban on Pakistani military posts. This escalation comes after a Pakistani airstrike in Kabul earlier last week, as reported by security officials from both nations. Taliban’s relations with Pakistan have deteriorated to such an extent that India is keen to take advantage of it to build bridges with Afghanistan. This is an urgent need of the hour as Pakistan has become a favourite of US President Donald Trump whose actions so far leave no one in doubt that he wants to inflict damage on India in varied forms.
The Taliban is seemingly sending the message across Pakistan that it is no longer dependent on Islamabad for survival. Deeper engagement with India will also help the Taliban gain legitimacy in the international community which views the regime as retrograde.
India has no option but to gravitate towards the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan beset as it is with sworn enemies like Pakistan and its backer China, while the US under Trump is adopting unprecedentedly hostile positions on key economic and developmental issues. Both India and Afghanistan would do well to cautiously advance their mutually beneficial diplomatic, strategic and economic agendas instead of getting bogged down in needless controversies.
