The Indian Women’s Press Corps on Wednesday expressed “shock and strong objection” to Union Minister and former army chief Gen V K Singh’s use of the term “presstitutes” for linking him to the video of a man touching the feet of BJP president Amit Shah.
Irresponsible statements by elected representatives set a “very bad precedent” as they have the effect of creating perceptions among the public, IWPC President T K Rajalakshmi and General Secretary Ravinder Bawa said in a statement.
“Whatever may be the compelling circumstances, it is a matter of dismay that the former army chief, a recipient of several honors and who is also a minister of state, should use derogatory and sexist terms to describe media-persons,” the organisation said.
The video, showing the man touching the feet of Shah while felicitating him after he was re-elected as BJP President on Sunday was doing the rounds on social media. Singh, a Minister of State in the Modi government, had yesterday said the said video is of Vijay Pal Tomar and not him as being linked, requesting people to counter the “mischief”.
“Video of Shri Vijay Pal Tomar during felicitation of Shri Amit Shah has been floated to say it is me. A case of mischief by prestitutes !!!!” he had tweeted.
Singh had earlier too used a word “presstitutes” to label the media, IWPC noted. It had triggered a massive outrage in April last year.
The controversy began when Singh said that visiting the Pakistan High Commission was “more exciting” than evacuating Indians from Yemen. Singh seemingly took offence to the outrage in the media, labelling the media “presstitutes” in a tweet.
Later, he tried to downplay the controversy, saying “presstitute” word was meant for a biased section of media.