lashing out at the media for not appreciating the “good work” of his Government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday showered praise on his Cabinet colleagues Gen (retd) VK Singh — who recently faced flak from a section of the media over his “presstitutes” remark — and Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj for the massive evacuation of Indian nationals from war-torn Yemen.
He praised the former Army chief and the incumbent Minister of State for External Affairs, saying: “I salute Gen (retd) VK Singh.” As for Swaraj, Modi said, “If somebody (in distress) tweets to her at 1 am, she replies by 1.10 am. The embassy concerned is alerted... Has anybody ever seen India’s External Affairs Ministry work like thisIJ”
Addressing BJP MPs ahead of the commencement of the second half of the Budget Session of Parliament, Modi was critical of the media for overlooking Singh’s performance at a time when newspapers worldwide highlighted the Indian rescue mission in Yemen. He said that the Indian media took note of it, but due to other reasons — in apparent reference to the criticism of Singh for his use of the term “presstitutes”.
“Can you imagineIJ Bombardment is going on in Yemen 24 hours and everybody is out to kill each other and we, after talking to so many countries, manage to stop this for two hours to evacuate as many Indians as possible. It is not a small incident.
“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 VK Singh,” he said. Taking a dig at Indian media, 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.”
Regretting the lack of what he described was an “echo-effect” of the good works of his Government, he said that if BJP was “naturally attached to power” then the party would have organised a grand show to felicitate Singh and Swaraj.
Thanking Modi for his praise, Singh said in a tweet, “Thank you @narendramodi ji for the kind words of appreciation, none of this would have been possible without your able leadership and guidance.”