Hafiz Saeed, Ved Pratap Vaidik's meet in Pakistan shocks House

New Delhi: A major controversy erupted over a meeting between Ved Pratap Vaidik, a journalist considered close to yoga guru Baba Ramdev and 26/11 Mumbai terror blasts mastermind Hafiz Saeed in Pakistan, with the Congress targeting the Prime Minister’s Office over the meeting, alleging its “direct involvement” and asking the Narendra Modi government to “come clean” on the issue.

Read: PMO 'directly involved' in Hafiz Saeed's meeting with Ramdev’s aide, alleges Congress

Despite the government informing Parliament that it had nothing to do with the journalist “directly, indirectly or even remotely” and asserting there was no sanction from its side for the meeting, it faced flak from the Opposition, and the Rajya Sabha saw two adjournments over the issue. The  Modi government also denied that there was any “Track-2 or Track-3 diplomacy involved”.

Using the controversy to target India, Jammat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed tweeted: “Sadly, so called ‘Secular’ India is unable to bear an informal meeting of her journalist, Mr.Videk (sic); another eg of Indian narrow mindedness. Row in Indian parliament over a journalists meeting with us shows the extremism, narrow mindedness of their politicians. Utterly Shameful.”

While Mr Vaidik rejected Congress suggestions that he may have acted as the government’s envoy, saying he was “nobody’s envoy but my own”, the Congress kept attacking the PMO, claiming that the “PMO is involved in sending him (Vaidik)” to Pakistan.

Read: Did not meet Hafiz Saeed as government envoy: Ramdev aide

The party further alleged that Mr Vaidik belonged to the same organisation, which is “dominated” by the RSS and whose three members — “Nripendra Misra, P.K. Mishra and Ajit Doval — are working for the Modi government”.

Hitting back at the Congress, the BJP said the Congress, which had “surrendered” before terrorism and adopted a “soft” approach towards Hafiz Saeed (during UPA rule), was now giving lessons on patriotism.

Accusing the Congress of doing this out of desperation and frustration after its Lok Sabha poll rout, it questioned the Congress over its inaction when Kashmiri separatist Yasin Malik sat in dharna with Saeed in Pakistan on the Afzal Guru hanging issue.

The BJP reminded the Congress that during its rule at the Centre, home minister Sushilkumar Shinde had referred to Saeed as “Hafiz Sahib” and to Osama bin Laden as “Osamaji”.
Claiming that the jounalist was “very close to the Sangh Parivar”, the Congress rejected the government’s contention that it had nothing to do with the meeting and said the issue was “very serious with regard to national security”, and that the PMO was “directly involved”.

In the Rajya Sabha, Leader of the House and finance and defence minister Arun Jaitley said for India, Saeed was a terrorist and indeed involved in terrorism against India. The government had nothing to do with “directly, indirectly or even remotely” with any journalist meeting Saeed, he said, adding that the “government had not sanctioned permission to anyone for meeting him (Saeed)”.

Rejecting Mr Jaitley’s remarks, the Congress said that “merely making statements like this” won’t do. Former Union minister Anand Sharma said the government needs to answer whether it was “in the loop”. He said: “Such meetings cannot take place without the knowledge of the officials. Therefore a legitimate question arises, was the government of India in the loop? Has our foreign ministry received a report?”

Hitting back at the Congress, minister of state for I&B Prakash Javadekar, also a BJP spokesman, said the “Congress is raising non-issues and presenting them as issues... The reality is that the Congress knows what it is putting forth is not right. It is desperate to hide its frustration due to the defeat. The Congress is desperate. Its real issue is the Leader of (Opposition in) Parliament. When the people of the country have rejected it to be in government and also not given it the numbers to get the LoP (post), how can the BJP help?”

Mr Vaidik had met the JuD chief in Lahore on July 2 while touring Pakistan along with a group of journalists and politicians invited by a peace research institute.
As the Congress sought his arrest, Mr Vaidik defended his parleys with Saeed, saying he was meeting all kinds of people and that it was a “simple thing” for him.

In Parliament, Congress members in both Houses sought a detailed statement from the government on the “purpose and motive behind the meeting with India’s most wanted terrorist”. The Congress and its allies demanded a statement by either the external affairs minister or the home minister, saying this was “a serious matter concerning national security”.

In a tweet, Congress leader Digvijay Singh raised queries on whether Mr Vaidik had met Saeed as an envoy of the NDA government or as a personal envoy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Mr Vaidik, meanwhile, told reporters: “Journalists in Pakistan know me for decades. They made a gesture (about meeting Saeed) to me, and I said all right, I will meet him. It was no big deal for me. It was a simple thing. For me it was like a normal meeting. I have been meeting Maoists of Nepal, Taliban of Afghanistan.”

Baba Ramdev came to Mr Vaidik’s defence, saying he would have tried to effect a “change of heart” in the terrorist chief. “He is a senior journalist and if in any context he is meeting a particular person, then there must be a reason behind it,” the yoga guru said.

In an interview to a TV channel, Mr Vaidik said he had met many national and foreign leaders and rebels over the years without being associated as anyone’s envoy. He said he had talked to Saeed for about 60 or 70 minutes on relations between India and Pakistan and terrorism.

“He (Saeed) denied all the allegations against him,” said Mr Vaidik, adding that “he said he came to know about the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks only two hours after the attack on television news”. He added: “I was very pleased when Saeed said he would welcome Mr Modi in Pakistan.” Vaidik claimed to have played the role of diplomat-in-chief as he says he had convinced Saeed to change his views about Mr Modi and India.

Read: Narendra Modi welcome in Pakistan, Hafiz Saeed tells Indian journalist

Mr Vaidik told a news agency: “Hafeez Saeed asked me about Narendra Modi. He said Modi is dangerous and now he has become Prime Minister of India. He said that Modi is dangerous for the whole of South Asia. I said his thinking is not right. There is no need to fear Modi.”