Journalist Ved Pratap Vaidik’s Pakistan visit hit the headlines since he returned from there. The political blame game began since then. RSS leader Ram Madhav asserted that Vaidik has no relation with the saffron outfit, saying a person roaming around with Congress leaders is not from the Sangh fountainhead. Describing him as an “RSS man”, Rahul Gandhi questioned whether the Indian High Commission in Islamabad had facilitated the meeting between him and Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed. Congress calls him ‘RSS man’ due to his close proximity with Baba Ramdev while BJP calling him ‘Congressman’ because he travels to the neighbouring country with senior Congress leaders like Manishankar Iyer and Salman Khurshid. Vaidik is a senior journalist and has full right to take an interview of any personality (either good or bad) but with accountability, proper explanation and intention.
Common man has nothing to do with it, but the way Vaidik addressed the terrorist with all sorts of positive adjectives, is really bothering. He tries to give glorified image of Hafiz Saeed, one of the most wanted terrorists in our country. It seems that he has taken a ‘supari’ for image makeover of the terrorist who has been mastermind of killing thousands of Indians along with 26/11 victims. Neither Congress has any proof that High Commission of India in Islamabad facilitated the Vaidik-Saeed meet nor BJP has any concrete evidence of who has sponsored his visit. Journalists can always connect with people with whom government cannot. So, it doesn’t mean that they are sponsored by Government. This is not the first time that a journalist met with a controversial personality like Hafeez Saeed. Tamil magazine Nakkeeran’s editor used to meet Veerappan very often for interviews. There are ‘lots’ of journalists who have interviewed Dawood Ibrahim, Chhota Shakeel and Chhota Rajan. Many journos spend their life with gangster Arun Gawli. JKLF chief Yaseen Malik shared stage with the same Hafeez Saeed in PoK but no action had been taken against him in Congress’ regime. How people will forget that Priyanka Gandhi met killers of her father in jail?
Vaidik belonged to the Vivekananda International Foundation, whose three members Nripendra Misra, P.K. Mishra and Ajit Doval are working for the Modi government as Principal Secretary, Additional Principal Secretary in PMO and National Security Advisor (NSA) respectively. Meanwhile, calling it a diversionary tactic of Congress, the government has distanced itself from the meeting between Vaidik and Saeed, saying the journalist was “neither authorised nor representing the government or BJP”. For the second consecutive day, Hafiz Saeed-Vaidik meeting disrupted proceedings in Rajya Sabha, leading to two adjournments during Question Hour.
Vaidik, a freelance journalist, had met the Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief in Lahore on July 2 while touring Pakistan along with a group of journalists and politicians invited by a peace research institute. India accuses Saeed, the founder of Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba of plotting a series of strikes in India including the infamous 26/11 Mumbai attacks in which 166 people were killed. In any case, Hafiz Saeed is a terrorist and he is criminal for us. If ever he comes to India, he will be brought as a criminal under the Indian law and order system.
Vaidik has been an accredited journalist for 55 years. If he is a principled journalist, he must disclose in detail what he has conversed with Hafiz Saeed. The whole world is aware that 26/11 Mumbai terror attack was planned and executed by this Hafiz Saeed. The victims are yet to recover from the shock after 6 years. BJP was making big hue and cry and shedding crocodile tears. Is it fair on BJP’s part to depute journalist to negotiate with such a dreaded terrorist? BJP and RSS ought to give an explanation because the collar of Saeed is up and he is making irresponsible comments in social media. Mr. Vaidik utters that for him, killing of 168 people is a non-issue and this deserves to be condemned by one and all. Does it not give an impression that Vaidik and BJP are hand in gloves with terrorists? Vaidik is not a terrorist and he met the notorious criminal for a media interview. Our nation respects the freedom given to media. Everyone is upset that an Indian met 26/11 mastermind. It’s in our nature that we hate our enemy and don’t want to be kind with our foe.
