JOIN USExternal Affairs junior minister VK Singh on Wednesday stirred up a fresh controversy by describing newsmen as ‘presstitutes’.
His slur came after a row over his remark that media finds his job of directing the evacuation of Indians from Yemen less exciting than his representing the government at the Pakistan High Commission on the neighbouring country's national day.
The Congress and the Broadcast Editors’ Association criticised his remark while the ruling BJP clarified that Gen Singh’s twitter post was a personal remark and its meaning can best be explained by the concerned person.
Swiftly distancing itself from Gen Singh’s remark, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said, “Twitter is a personal platform and not a party platform and the meaning of the tweet can best be deciphered by the person concerned.”.
Gen Singh, who earned laurels for the Modi government by overseeing Operation Rahaat for the evacuation of close to 4000 people from war-torn Yemen, including people from other countries, made sarcastic remarks against an English news channel for playing up his comment that media was finding his effort from ground zero “less exciting” than his visit to the Pakistan High Commission on Pakistan Day.
“Friends what do you you expect from presstitutes. Last time (Arnab) thought there was 'O' in place of 'E',” Singh tweeted on Tuesday night.
The channel used a hashtag #VKDisaster to tweet first that “Pakistan embassy visit was exciting”. The second was, “General VK Singh says Yemen rescue operation is not as exciting as his visit to Pakistan embassy”. And the third one; “General VK Singh thinks rescue operations underway in war-hit Yemen are a big joke, claims they are not exciting”.
The Minister of State for external affairs posted back, “If simple remark that media finds Yemen less exciting than my attending PAK day is contorted out of shape then SOS GOD”. Later, he also retweeted a post of one Dr Manish Kumar @DrManishKumar1 which stated “BJP said ‘Tweets can only be explained by person who writes it’ but @TimesNow is misleading as “BJP asks @Gen_VKSingh to Explain his Tweet.”.
The Congress demanded that Singh be sacked for dubbing media personnel as ‘presstitutes’. “We are not going to rest till the demand is met. He should be sacked immediately. This is a highly condemnable remark against the media, which is the fourth pillar of democracy,” Congress spokesperson Khushboo told reporters.
“If such utterances keep coming people will lose faith in the government,” was the comment of Broadcast Editors’ Association general secretary NK Singh.