New Delhi, April 9: In a room packed with journalists, foreign secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar had just spent 40 minutes speaking and answering questions about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's trip to France, Germany and Canada when it was time for one final query.

A reporter asked Jaishankar if there was any precedent of a junior foreign minister comparing the news media to sex workers and if the foreign secretary would like to comment on minister of state for external affairs V.K. Singh's coinage of the word "presstitute?"

Jaishankar paused, thought and responded: "No."

It isn't clear whether Jaishankar's monosyllabic answer at a media briefing yesterday was for the first or the second question, or for both. But his reluctance to engage with the latest controversy that has enveloped former army chief Singh captures the sentiment of multiple Indian diplomats The Telegraph has spoken to over the past few days: that their second-in-command is distracting from their work.

Singh's latest reference to sections of the news media as "presstitutes" on Twitter has even shifted some of the public focus from India's evacuation of over 4,000 nationals and 400 foreigners from Yemen, coordinated by the junior minister himself.

Today, Singh wrote to the Press Council of India, complaining that some sections of the media had misinterpreted his comments. The BJP, to which he belongs, while distancing itself from Singh's comments, has not made public any reprimand from its leadership or from Modi.

But in the ministry of external affairs, Singh is increasingly alone.

"You won't find anyone in South Block publicly criticising him, but no one with any responsibility is going to even privately tell you that what he did was fine," a senior diplomat said. "There's a sense that these are unnecessary controversies that force us to divert our attention from more meaningful battles."

The latest controversy was triggered by a comment Singh made in Djibouti, which India has used as its base for rescue operations from Yemen.

Asked about the evacuation, Singh said it was less exciting than his visit to the Pakistan high commission last month as an Indian representative for that country's national day that drew strong criticism from sections of the television media.

Singh's comment was clearly in jest, a video of it shows, and meant more as a barb at his critics in the media.

But when these critics questioned the comparison, Singh fell for the bait again, responding as he had after his visit to the Pakistan mission in March - through a flurry of tweets referring to sections of the media as "presstitutes".

In some tweets, both last month and yesterday, Singh referred to some news organisations and individuals as deserving of the "P" tag - an apparent reference to the word he has sired.

"Public diplomacy is the art of underlining your achievements and downplaying moves that can be misunderstood," a second diplomat said. "What these controversies have done is highlight those decisions that are sensitive, and distracted from our achievements."

Although India has sent junior foreign ministers to Pakistan Day celebrations in the past too, the Modi government has adopted a tougher stance on talks with Islamabad.

But in recent weeks, the government has indicated a willingness to move towards a thaw, and not sending a representative to the national day celebrations would have defeated that attempt.

"You know, of course, that any warmth towards Pakistan, even if necessary diplomatically, has the potential to backfire in the court of public opinion - and television studios," an official earlier posted in Pakistan had told this correspondent last week. "What you want is that such incidents pass quickly."