VK Singh
Union Mininster V K Singh addresses during a press conference in Srinagar on Nov. 15, 2014.IANS

Times Now is having a tough time these days, often landing in trouble of its own making. The latest was its attempt to embarrass Minister of State for External Affairs General (retd) V K Singh, for a rather sarcastic remark made by him over the Yemen evacuation operations. 

The controversy erupted over Singh's statement made in Yemen, where he had gone to monitor Indian government's rescue operations to bring stranded Indians home from the war-hit zone.

In a lighter vein, Singh had said that the rescue operation was not as exciting as his visit to the Pakistani embassy on the country's National Day.

Times Now took advantage of it to criticise Singh and tweeted, "General VK Singh thinks rescue operations underway in war-hit Yemen are a big joke, claims they are not exciting" using the hashtag #VKDisaster.

But the move to embarass Singh boomeranged heavily on the channel, with Twitterati going on the offensive to target Times Now with the hastag #TimesNowDisaster. 

Meanwhile, Singh posted a tweet calling journalists "presstitues".

This triggered a new hastag on Twitter by the same name. Using the hashtag #Presstitutes, many people praised Singh and criticised mainstream media for targeting him.

@TimesNowThe news channel that gets everything. Except sarcasm. #Presstitutes #GenVKSinghRocks

— Sumedh Habbu (@sumedhhabbu) April 8, 2015