A day after defining “duty” and “disgust” with a series of tweets that were open to interpretation, Union Minister of State for External Affairs General (retd) VK Singh blamed the media for stirring a controversy and denied reports that he had offered to quit following criticism over attending Pakistan National Day Function on Monday in the presence of Jammu & Kashmir separatists.
Singh’s Monday night cryptic tweets gave clear impression that he was not happy with performing a duty that he himself defined as “A task or action that a person is bound to perform for moral or legal reasons.” The fact that Singh did not stay back for the dinner and left the Pakistan embassy just 10 minutes later also showed that he was merely performing an “obligation” as a representative of the Government.
Singh held a late night press conference on Tuesday to target the media after the entire controversy came up for discussion at a high-level meeting attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior Cabinet Ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj. Party president Amit Shah was also present in the meet.
Denying reports that he offered to quit following the “tweet’ controversy, Singh said, “I am fully committed to my party and my Government, especially to the Prime Minister.”
Blaming the media for misinterpreting his tweets, Singh said, “My tweets were directed at only that section of the media which questioned the intent of my Government and also the stance on countering Pakistan-sponsored terror.”
Earlier during the day, Singh came under all-round criticism from the Congress, the NCP and the JD(U) and was also targeted on social media for attending the Pakistan National day function in the presence of the separatists when the Modi Government had called off bilateral talks with Pakistan six months ago just because Hurriyat leaders had met the Pak High Commissioner ahead of the Foreign Secretary-level dialogue.