Presstitute comment: VK Singh can hate media, but govt should intervene on foul language

New Delhi: Despite being a soldier, Gen (retd) VK Singh, former Army chief and currently Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs, doesn’t find saving 4,000 Indian lives exciting. Given a choice, he would prefer to be in the “Pakistan Embassy”. That’s not all. He would call the media people ‘presstitutes’ if asked uncomfortable questions.

The MoS seems to have developed a penchant for courting controversies and making unsavoury statements in public.

While the Indian government, which has received international appreciation for successfully evacuating 4,000 Indians through rescue Operation Rahat from the warzone in Yemen, the former Army chief sarcastically remarked while speaking to a news channel in Djibouti (Yemen), “Dekha jaye to yeh kaam utna exciting nahi lag raha jitna mera Pak embassy mai jaane ka thaa (the evacuation operation in Yemen wasn’t as exciting as his attending the event in Pak embassy in Delhi).” Singh was in Yemen to monitor evacuation efforts being carried out by the Indian government.

Making a caustic remark on the media, made another loose remark on Twitter on Tuesday evening, “Friends what do you expect from presstitutes. Last time Arnab thought there was ‘O’ in place of ‘E’.”

“We never expected much from VK Singh as a minister, because even when he was in the Army, where discipline is the final word, he made controversial statements. And, now what he has said about the media is disgusting. We fail to understand why Narendra Modi, who himself got such big support from the media, is silent over this issue. He should immediately remove Singh from his post. During the UPA regime, no senior minister used such abusive language. Even if anyone ever made any adverse remark publicly, our party hierarchy took action, whereas, the BJP’s complete silence on this is highly condemnable,” Congress general secretary Shakeel Ahmed told Firstpost.

Congress MP and former I&B Minister, Manish Tewari added, “VK Singh’s statement is an assault on the freedom of press. It reflects of an intolerant mindset. The PM, the other day, had remarked on activists as ‘five-star activists’, which shows how intolerant they are towards criticism. The PM should have dismissed his minister for such a comment.”

On 23 March, Singh after attending the Pakistani envoy Abdul Basit’s dinner in the national capital had posted a series of cryptic tweets:

[“A task or action that a person is bound to perform for moral or legal reasons”; “The force that binds one morally or legally to one’s obligations”; “A job or service allocated”; “To sicken or fill with loathing” and “To offend the moral sense, principles, or taste of”>.

Later, slamming the media, Singh again tweeted, “Disgust’ed to see how certain sections of the media are twisting this issue. (sic).”

Despite being an ex-army chief where discipline and etiquettes of the highest order are maintained, Singh fails to understand that though he is free to speak his mind, now as a public servant, he’s responsible for whatever he says, tweets or posts on Facebook. Everything he says will be seen to have an official sanction and when he chooses to target a media house, it effectively sounds like he has the government’s sanction to do so.

JD(U) leader and spokesperson, KC Tyagi has termed it as horrible, shameful and shocking. “The statement made by VK Singh against the media is derogatory and he has the habit of making such statements.”

Samajwadi Party’s legal cell chief, Gaurav Bhatia was quick to add, “It reflects the minister’s mindset and the comment he made is unacceptable. However, it also reflects his frustration of making the wrong choice by joining the party.”

Surprisingly, Singh, who is an MoS in the MEA, seems to be unaware of the fact that the Pakistan doesn’t have an embassy, but a High Commission. Because, Commonwealth nations such as Britain, Australia, India, etc maintain High Commissions in each other’s countries.

“In common parlance, people refer to a high commission as an embassy, but technically it’s wrong. Any Commonwealth country will have High Commission and not an Embassy,” a foreign affairs expert said. A minister should know the difference.

Besides the unanimous demand of political parties to sack the minister, Gen Singh’s comment has drawn flak from the Broadcast Editors’ Association (BEA) that has condemned him. The BEA said that such a comment by a minister of the Union Cabinet only deteriorates the image of the government.

“We condemn it. I am surprised that a member of Union council could comment like this. BEA severally criticises this. How can he utter such a word? In a civilized society, even for the prostitutes, we don’t use this kind of word. It reflects the pathological and perverted mindset of the minister. This type of a tweet deteriorates the image of the government. He wants to be in news by using such statements, but the government has to pay a heavy price. The PM should take cognizance of this and rein in this minister,” the BEA general secretary NK Singh reportedly told a news channel today.

Echoing a similar reaction, senior journalist Shekhar Gupta told a TV channel, “I see a pattern in this… attempt to intimidate the media…”

However, in its first reaction to the incident, the spokesperson of the BJP, Sambit Patra said, “Tweets are personal and it may best be deciphered by the person, who tweeted. We firmly believe in healthy democracy and on our slogan – Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas.”