Agencies
DJIBOUTI, APRIL 8
Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh was on Tuesday caught in a fresh controversy over his remarks comparing the Yemen evacuation operation with his visit to the Pakistani mission recently and later making snide remarks against a TV channel."Actually speaking, the operation (evacuation) in Yemen is less exciting than going to the Pakistani embassy," he said in Djibouti when asked about his overseeing the evacuation of Indians.
As his remarks evoked sharp reaction from political parties including Congress which said the comments were "deplorable" and showed his "insensitivity", he blamed a TV channel.
"Friends what do you you expect from presstitutes," he said in a tweet late night adding that last time the TV anchor thought there was 'O' in place of 'E'.
However, officials here said the minister was being sarcastic and his comments were in reference to media, as per PTI.
Meanwhile, Singh again tweeted today regarding the controversy saying: "If simple remark that media finds Yemen less exciting than my attending PAK day is contorted out of shape then SOS GOD."
Last month, Singh had raked up a controversy by tweeting with the hashtag 'DISGUST' after attending the Pakistan Day celebrations in New Delhi.
Singh had said that he was asked by the government to represent it at the Pakistan National Day reception at the Pakistani High Commission.
"The Government of India has to sent an MoS. They sent me and I went there and came back," he said replying to a question about his presence at the reception.
He had posted a series of tweets on 'duty' and 'disgust'.
India Monday evacuated 1052 of its nationals from Yemen, taking the total number of Indians rescued from the strife-torn country to nearly 3,300 as the government was looking at wrapping up the massive evacuation operation 'Rahat' in a couple of days.
While 574 Indians were evacuated from Sanaa by Air India, which did three sorties, another group of 479 was rescued from Al Hudaydah by INS Mumbai, the Spokesperson in the External Affairs Ministry.
With nearly 3,300 of its nationals out of Yemen, India was looking at wrapping up the evacuation operation in a couple of days.
Meanwhile, 25 countries, including the US, Bangladesh and Iraq have sought India's assistance in evacuating its nationals from the war-ravaged country. While Pakistan has not sought help for the evacuation of its nationals, India during the operation also rescued Pakistani nationals.
