VK Singh at a meeting about rescue missions in Djibouti
Union minister VK Singh has said his task of overseeing the evacuation of Indians from war-torn Yemen is "less exciting than going to the Pakistan embassy."
General Singh has spent a week in Djibouti supervising dramatic and heroic rescue operations by the Navy, Air Force and Air India. He made the comment while speaking to reporters on Tuesday.
"It is a difficult task, but if you talk of excitement I think it's looking less exciting than going to the Pakistan embassy," the former army chief quipped, raising eyebrows.
The comment references the controversy last month after General Singh attended the Pakistan Day celebrations, also attended by Kashmiri separatists, and later tweeted about "duty" and "disgust."
The minister was forced to clarify that his tweets were not directed at the government that deputed him to attend the reception; he said he was targeting sections of the media that tried to portray the dinner as "a nationalistic event" and suggested that his attendance would demoralise the army he led till 2012.
General Singh's attendance at the dinner was cleared by the government amid a row over Pakistan envoy Abdul Basit's invitation to separatists.