General VK Singh, ex-chief of Army and currently Minister of State for External Affairs has done a stellar job in rescuing Indians stranded in Yemen and he deserves every bit of praise that comes his way regarding this aspect.
However, the Minister also sparked off a controversy by referring to the media as ‘’presstitutes” on twitter.
The background behind this entire episode: VK Singh attended the national day celebrations of Pakistan at their embassy recently prompting a backlash from the media, especially Arnab Goswami of ‘Timesnow’.
The general clarified that he attended the event only because protocol demanded that an official from India should be present at the event.
Later in Yemen during the airlifting operations, the general in an interview wryly remarked that the media didn’t find the evacuation operations in Yemen as exciting as his visit to the Pakistan embassy.
Seizing on this opening, ‘Times Now’ carried a series of tweets on the Minister which went as follows: “General VK Singh says Yemen rescue operation is not as exciting as his visit to Pakistan embassy. #VKDisaster”.
Needless to say, this was a case of ‘Times Now’ cleverly interpreting the Minister’s words literally and not reading between the lines.
An angry Singh responded then with the above word of ‘Presstitutes”. This controversy no threatens to undermine the good work that Singh has done in Yemen.
Mr Singh should shed his army demeanor and start acting like a politician. His words in his capacity as Minister would be scrutinized by th world and any lapses will only serve to distract the public from the positives accomplished.
