Attending Pakistan Day event part of diplomatic civility: V.K. Singh

Minister of State for External Affairs Gen. (retd) V.K. Singh on Tuesday said his attending the Pakistan Day function was part of "diplomatic civility" and wondered what the brouhaha was about.

Speaking to Times Now news channel, V.K. Singh, a former army chief, made it clear that he was representing the government at the function held on Monday evening.

It was also attended by leaders of two factions of the Hurriyat Conference and some other separatist organisations from Jammu and Kashmir.

V.K. Singh said the Hurriyat Conference had been attending the event for the past about 20 years.

"For the last 20 years, Hurriyat (has been) part of Pakistan National Day (function). Has it happened for the first time?" he asked.

He said the government nominates a person for such events.

"The government nominated a person to attend. There is full stop after that. The government takes (such a decision) for all national days of all embassies (in India)," he said.

"There is diplomatic civility involved in it. Where is the question of questioning such things?" he said.

V.K. Singh's remarks to the TV channel came after a series of tweets he made on Monday evening under the hashtags 'duty' and 'disgust' created a controversy.

Under 'Duty', he wrote: "A task or action that a person is bound to perform for moral or legal reasons", "The force that binds one morally or legally to one's obligations", and "A job or service allocated".

Under 'Disgust', he posted: "To sicken or fill with loathing", and "To offend the moral sense, principles, or taste of".

As some sections of the media speculated that these tweets were a kind of unease of the minister who was asked by the government to attend the Pakistan Day event, V.K. Singh again posted: "'Disgust'ed to see how certain sections of the media are twisting this issue."

Congress leader Manish Tewari said on Tuesday that V.K. Singh should quit if he felt disgusted.

"If the minister is so disgusted with the double standards of the government on Pakistan... then he should have quit," Tewari told reporters.

He also tweeted that if the minister felt "disgusted with the double standards of his government on Pakistan he should quit? Other ministers in the past refused to attend Pakistan events".

V.K. Singh was at the Pakistan National Day event for about 10 minutes and talked to Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit.