How Gen VK Singh snatched defeat from the jaws of victory

Retired General Vijay Kumar Singh won the last Lok Sabha elections by a humongous margin, second only to that of Narendra Modi in Vadodara. He is the rare soldier who rose to become the Chief of Army Staff and then a minister in the Centre. The rare man in the Anna Hazare movement who chose the BJP right in the beginning and stayed with it. He is also a man of contradictions, and I am not talking about the dates-of-birth controversy. This exemplary soldier has lived the value of discipline and honour, and yet he often lets go of these virtues. He is vocal on social media, which is a good thing, but ends up saying things that his organisation has to distance itself from. This is not how soldiers speak. 

The latest in the series of textual offence is the General repeating the coinage "Presstitute" for the media. The problem with such low-form coinages is that one can’t resist using them because they draw quick chuckles. The fourth estate is just a euphemism. Like the other three estates, a vibrant, questioning-everything media also makes a mess of things in this free-for-all freefall because it is run by people and people make errors of judgment once in a while. But it is also diverse and that diversity ensures that the errors are minimal and the ones made are corrected. Times Now repeated a mistake and VK Singh repeated his. Neither came out smelling nice. Times Now didn’t get the General’s joke. The word the General was looking for was "stupid", not a play on the word "prostitute". When the media expressed its disgust, he called it "hyperventilation".

Let us face it. TV channels have their own idioms, and idiots are not exclusive to politics. The unwarranted and excessive slant in playing up Gen Singh’s visit to the Pakistan High Commission on the neighbour’s National Day was idiotic. This has been a routine, and this time more attention-drawing because the minister of state for external affairs happened to be a former Army chief. Calling Singh a "traitor" for performing his duty as a minister was way out of line. General VK Singh looked much better that night, until he decided to disgrace himself by tweeting about disgust and not making clear what the "disgust" referred to. The clarifications came after the damage was done. 

General VK Singh says Yemen rescue operation is not as exciting as his visit to Pakistan embassy. #VKDisaster

— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) April 7, 2015

Friends what do you you expect from presstitutes. Last time Arnab thought there was 'O' in place of 'E' #TimesNowDisaster

— Vijay Kumar Singh (@Gen_VKSingh) April 7, 2015

As if on cue, the two parties in that skirmish did an encore on Tuesday. Gen Singh’s obvious sarcasm in an interview to ANI, and in a tweet, was obviously missed by Times Now; which, in a series of tweets, attacked him for not finding Yemen "exciting" enough. The man was attracting applause from all around for the precision with which he led the evacuation of Indians and people of over 20 nationalities from Yemen. Singh was flying in and out of Sana’a, a warzone, to ensure that people caught in the crossfire could be brought to safety. India has won accolades from international community for these efforts, and VK Singh has been leading from the front. 

Instead of giving credit to him, the channel stayed focused on his sarcastic tweet, and when it backfired, insisted that it had backfired on Gen Singh. This was sheer idiocy, and needed to be called out as such. People were overwhelmingly in favour of VK Singh, who was seen as a hero. And the channel was the villain. But then, the good General decided to fight stupidity with an extremely petty comment, when magnanimity of ignoring it or a simple comeback could do the job. He demolished the higher ground that he had rightfully acquired, by coming down and fighting a stupid comment with an obnoxious one. 

A large number of people, who hate the mainstream media for the quick sanctimonious positions that some take, rose in defence of the General. The Quickgun General’s followers applauded his putdown. He may have become a bigger hero in their eyes. But by using that front-row coinage, he has damaged his reputation, and that of the chair he occupies. Diplomacy is not one of his strengths; but he is in charge of a department that breathes diplomacy. He has had a good run. It’s his responsibility to ensure that his good work is not overshadowed by careless words. Nobody knows better the value of responsibility than a man who has been a soldier. A soldier never retires, even when the general does.