General Singh Needs Support, Not Silence

The retired Army general has returned a people’s hero for his supervision of the rescue operations in Yemen. At the same time, his lack of political astuteness has made him an easy target for detractors and the electronic media. Not defending him at such a time can dent the government’s popularity among nationalists.   

General VK Singh is not a seasoned politician. On the contrary, the MoS for External Affairs continues to be an army man at heart. Efficient and goal-oriented, but candid and blunt on occasions. In the TRP and circulation-driven mainstream electronic and print media, turning him into a target of criticism is easy. That is one important reason why his senior colleagues in the Narendra Modi cabinet must speak up and provide him cover whenever necessary. But the question is, are they doing it, or is Singh being left to fend for himself?

Operation Rahat, the rescue operation launched by Government of India to evacuate Indians trapped in war-torn Yemen, officially ended on Thursday, 9th April. It was a brilliantly executed endeavour in which  more than 4,600 Indians and 960 foreign nationals of 26 countries, including the US, France, the UK, Sweden, Russia, Hungary, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Philippines, Lebanon, Kenya and Morocco, among others, were rescued and evacuated.

The crisis in Yemen had been brewing for quite some time. After a political coup by former President Ali Abdullah Saleh in which the Iran-backed Shia Houthi faction had ousted President Abed Mansour Hadi, the situation had worsened dramatically. Saudi Arabia responded quickly to the situation with its so-called 10-nation Arab coalition bombing the Houthi encampments to restore the political power of Hadi.

This is where New Delhi had to step in. The Middle East harbours almost seven million expatriate Indians who are settled there with regular jobs. The number, in itself, speaks volumes of India’s stakes in the region. With the crisis having a full-fledged potential to spiral out of control, the country could well turn into the newest breeding ground of terrorist entities like the Islamic State or the al Qaeda.

At the time Operation Rahat was launched, the priorities were clear. The trapped Indians had to be rescued, and time was precious. The evacuation base was set up in Djibouti, situated on the African side of the Gulf of Aden, from where rescue operations were to be carried out in a joint endeavour by the Indian Air Force, the Indian Navy and Air India.

The entire operation was planned in a meticulous manner, and was carried out in tandem with the still-functional Indian High Commission in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen. Throughout the operation, Singh was in the thick of the action, visiting both, the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, and the Indian evacuation base at Djibouti.

Reacting to the excellent progress of Operation Rahat, Prime Minister Modi, had praised on Twitter the overall coordination among the civilian and defence agencies. Apart from that, he had reserved special praise for his colleagues Sushma Swaraj and General Singh.

Perhaps remembering how he was targeted by the media for his visit to Pakistan High Commission on 23rd March, at an event which was also attended by some Hurriyat Conference leaders, General Singh made a remark speaking to the Indian reporters in Djibouti that the evacuation exercise was “less exciting than going to the Pakistani embassy”. The sarcasm in the remark was more than obvious — something even a college student would appreciate. But the ‘seasoned’ reporters of the mainstream media chose to deliberately ignore it and the matter was blown out of proportions.

This is when the General’s lack of political astuteness came in view through his tweet which followed the comment, which said that he didn’t expect any better from “presstitutes”.

This set the cat among the pigeons, with major media houses baying for the general’s blood and the Congress, quite expectedly, going for the jugular. In fact, they even went as far as to demand the removal of the MoS from his position.

Ironically, all the good work of Operation Rahat is now being thrown out of the window, as the English language news channels and the principal opposition party are gearing up against Singh. At this juncture, it is surprising that his own party, the BJP, and his senior Cabinet colleagues are maintaining an almost deafening silence. Apart from a few leaders like Subramanian Swamy, the party on the whole has distanced itself from the General and his tweet, terming it his personal choice of words. This reaction (or the lack of it) reeks of a stale kind of political correctness that India has seen over the decades.

However, the times are changing. With the evolution of the social media, the national socio-political discourse has been witnessing novel methods of expressing opinions, and newer platforms of discussions and debates. Despite General Singh’s own party distancing itself from him on this issue, the people, via social media, lapped him up as their hero — going as far as organising a grand reception of his arrival from Yemen at the T3 Terminal of Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi.

Two of the major English news channels that have been at the frontline of this sensationalist exercise of attacking the General have come under heavy flak on both Facebook and Twitter. Apparently, the mainstream media is yet to realise that, in this age of democratisation of thought, channels alone cannot form opinions for everybody else based on their cacophonic programmes; with hyper-ventilating and hyper-opinionated news anchors having their own axes to grind.

The word ‘presstitute,’ which had entered the journalistic jargon long ago, has been in usage as a portmanteau. It can already be found in online dictionaries and, in a few years, it might gain entry into the Oxford and Webster too. In countries like the United States, it is often used to describe mainstream media houses and journalists who compromise on journalistic proprieties to ‘sell a particular point of view’. Overall, this hue and cry over the General’s tweet can be considered at best a case of ‘much ado about nothing’ and, at worst, pure and downright yellow journalism.

As for the ruling party leaving their junior colleague (who is also a first-time MP from Ghaziabad) in the lurch, it is strongly felt in the nationalist circles on social media and elsewhere that it would be better for the BJP-led NDA, especially with the clear mandate that it has received from the people of India, to stop compromising on its core values and stand solidly behind their colleague, especially after the grand success of Operation Rahat.