For a journalist, it is no crime to meet a criminal or a terrorist just as it is no infringement of any kind for a lawyer to defend the worst law-breaker. Indeed, civilised society proceeds on the assumption that the most wanted criminals are entitled to legal defence (which only lawyers can provide), and any news that is fit to print needs a journalist who will go and get it. Thus, if Ved Pratap Vaidik — a former editor at Navbharat Times and at PTI Bhasha, and a Hindi columnist of long standing — has met Hafiz Saeed, the founder of the Lahore-based Jamaat-ud-Dawa that supplies the ideological underpinning to the anti-India terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Tayyaba which is seen as an instrument of the ISI, in discharge of a journalistic function (and lands a scoop in the bargain), he would be contributing to our understanding of current realities. There is, however, no evidence yet that Mr Vaidik, a prominent supporter of the yoga teacher-cum-businessman Baba Ramdev and of right-wing causes associated with him, met Saeed in course of a journalistic assignment. It is also a mystery who funded Mr Vaidik’s three-week stay in Pakistan, how the visa was arranged (it is seldom easy for an Indian scribe to have a visa that extends many weeks), or for that matter the meeting with Saeed (which seems improbable without the ISI’s go-ahead). The government, answering strong Opposition voices in Parliament, did quite robustly reject the suggestion that the senior journalist had met the JuD supremo at the behest of the official machinery. This is unlikely to placate the government’s opponents or satisfy other sceptics. After all, journalists (and other professionals) are known to be sometimes used by intelligence agencies — on a deniable basis, of course. This happens everywhere in the world. Even so, it is strikingly bad form for the Congress to demand Mr Vaidik’s arrest, even if Saeed has been declared a terrorist by India (and, indeed, the US). True, in the first NDA government then law minister Arun Jaitley wasn’t in the mood to show mercy — while extolling the virtues of Pota — to journalists who might want to meet terrorists in the line of duty. We can only hope the Congress isn’t barking up that tree. That would be quite simply ridiculous. Instead of focusing on the person of Mr Vaidik, it may be profitable to wonder if the Modi government is engaged in looking for unconventional openings with Pakistan that supplement the standing diplomatic route or even the Track-II channel (which typically uses former officials, public figures, and frequently journalists as well). If so, there could be a price to pay, if things go wrong.
