Pak High Commission visit: Don't need to give any explanation, says VK Singh

Reacting to increasing criticism from the Opposition, particularly Congress, Union Minister of State for External Affairs General VK Singh said on Tuesday that there was nothing unusual over his visit to the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi to attend that country’s national day celebrations. The participation of the Hurriyat Conference in the celebrations had snowballed into a major controversy. [caption id=“attachment_2171197” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh looks on as Pakistani High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit speaks during a reception on Pakistan National Day at Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi on Monday. PTI[/caption] “For the last 20 years the Hurriyat has been a part of Pakistan National Day which is held every year on 23 March. The government of India takes a decision on who would go to the function. There is a diplomatic civility involved,” Singh told Times Now when asked if he was not happy to visit the Pakistan High Commission. The minister made it clear that he simply attended the function as he was asked by the Indian government and the matter ended there. “I don’t need to give an explanation to anybody. Keep advice to yourself,” Singh said in response to Congress’ Manish Tewari who had taken on Singh for attending the Pakistani official function. Speculations were rife when the minister on Monday evening tweeted soon after leaving the High Commission indicating that he may not have been happy at being deputed to be at the function. The series of tweets by the minister were intriguing defining “disgust” and “duty”. Singh, however, chose to remain mum regarding his tweets. In the first of the five quick tweets, Singh, a former Army Chief, said, “To offend the moral sense, principles, or taste of”. This was immediately followed by another which said, “To sicken or fill with loathing”. While the third tweet said, “A job or service allocated,” the fourth one said,“The force that binds one morally or legally to one’s obligations”. The last tweet said,“A task or action that a person is bound to perform for moral or legal reasons”. After attending the reception last evening, Singh told reporters that he was asked by the government to represent it at the function. “The Government of India has to send an MoS. They sent me and I went there and came back,” he said. Singh attended the event where several Kashmiri separatist leaders including Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Yaseen Malik were also present. The minister’s visit to the Pakistani High Commission had come on a day when India and Pakistan sparred over Hurriyat leaders’ meeting Pakistani envoy Abdul Basit with government making it clear that there was no role for a third party. With PTI inputs