Prime Minister Narendra Modi was all praise for Minister of State for Overseas Indian Affairs General (Retd.) V.K. Singh, who faced attack from a section of the media over his ‘presstitutes’ remark, as he hit out at the media for not highlighting the “good works” of his government.
“I salute Gen (retd) VK Singh,” Modi said as he hailed the rescue mission led by the minister for evacuating Indians out of Yemen, for which External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, too, came in for praise from the Prime Minister.
However, Mr. Modi was critical of the media for ignoring Mr. Singh’s work.
>The great Yemen escape: Operation Rahat by numbers
He said the Indian media took note of it, but due to other reasons — a reference to the criticism of Mr. Singh for his use of the term ‘presstitutes’.
“I believe this is the first time in the world that a government minister has stood on the battlefield like a soldier to do this work... I salute General V.K. Singh,” he said at a meeting of BJP MPs.
Taking a dig at Indian media, Mr. Modi said: “Look at TV channels and newspapers the world over; they are talking about how India has conducted the operation from the forefront. Indian newspapers spoke about it in the end and that too due to some other reason.”
Mr. Modi also lauded the External Affairs Minister, saying that the Ministry had never before worked like it was doing under her.
“If somebody [in distress] tweets to her at 1 a.m. in night, she replies by 1.10 am. The embassy concerned is alerted...Has anybody ever seen India’s External Affairs Ministry work like this?” he asked.
Thanking Modi for his praise, Singh said in a tweet:
Thanku >@narendramodi ji >@PMOIndia 4the kind words of appreciation,none of this would hv been possible without ur able leadership & guidance
— Vijay Kumar Singh (@Gen_VKSingh) >April 19, 2015
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