Indian news channels are citing unnamed sources in the Prime Minister's Office as saying that The Washington Post has 'apologised' for its piece on Manomohan Singh, headlined 'India's 'silent' prime minister becomes a tragic figure'.

But the writer of the article has denied that any such apology has been made. Simon Denyer, India bureau chief, The Washington Post, tweeted: 'Again, I made no apology for the article. After all, its mild compared to what is in Indian press all the time...!'

Denyer had earlier tweeted: 'Have realised where possible apology confusion came from. PMO wanted to post a reply in comments section but website was temporarily down...So I simply apologised for website issues. They were quickly fixed and I called PMO back to tell them comments were open for them to post.'