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Congress seeks to corner government on Ved Pratap Vaidik-Hafiz Saeed meeting

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The controversial meeting of Baba Ramdev's aide Ved Pratap Vaidik with 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed in Pakistan earlier this month has triggered a political uproar after the senior scribe uploaded photographs of the meeting.

The Congress on Monday sought to corner the government inside and outside the Parliament over whether it had given its approval to the meeting. 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".

They created uproar in Rajya Sabha forcing two adjournments during Question Hour, as they and their colleagues in Lok Sabha, as well as those from their allies, sought to know whether the journalist had sought government's permission before meeting Saeed and who facilitated it.

The government on its part distanced itself from the meeting and declared it had nothing to do with the journalist "directly, indirectly or even remotely" and asserted there was no sanction from its side. "There is no Track-2 or Track-3 diplomacy involved," it added.

Vaidik claimed that Saeed told him that 'he has no problem if prime minister Narendra Modi visits Pakistan as the country would welcome him'.

Vaidik, had an hour-long meeting with Saeed at his Lahore residence on July 2, as Congress questioned whether the meeting with Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief was sanctioned by the NDA government? Vaidik, currently chairman of Council for Indian Foreign Policy, was on a 20-day trip to Pakistan, where he claims to have convened meetings with Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharief and other prominent politicians of the country.

Even though Vaidik clarified that he met Saeed in personal capacity as a journalist, the government had to issue a statement in the parliament saying "it had nothing to do with the meeting".

"I was not envoy of anybody. I am thinker. Can Marx become an agent of Lenin or Mao? We are thinkers, we serve the country without position. I have had excellent relationship with all the PMs from Indira Gandhi onwards but I didn't become anybody's envoy," Vaidik told reporters here.

Vaidik, who has a doctorate in international affairs from JNU, is a close associate of yoga guru Baba Ramdev and has been part of the anti-corruption movement in 2011-12.

While detailing about his meeting with Saeed, Vaidik added "My meeting would give no one any recognition. I am a small man. I have met him as a journalist. I have always met people. I have met so many terrorists... that is the job of a journalist."

Vaidik has worked with Press Trust of India for a decade as the Founder-Editor of its Hindi News Agency 'Bhasha.'

Vaidik is a regular visitor to Pakistan and also advocates peaceful resolution of Kashmir issue through dialogue. He has been a member of the Indian delegation to the UN in 1999 and is an expert on India-Afghan-Pakistan relations.

Ramdev also defended Vaidik, stating that he met Saeed as a journalist. The photographs of the meeting triggered widespread debate on social media as well.

The government too refused to hold Vaidik responsible for any wrongdoing maintaining that 'Saeed was the most wanted terrorist.' Minister of state for home affairs Kiren Rijiju said, "Hafiz Saeed is the most wanted and this is an important issue, we will look into it. But a journalist cannot be regulated."

Union finance and defence minister Arun Jaitley backed Rijiju's comments saying, "Hafiz Saeed is a terrorist as per the government of India and any journalist in individual capacity meeting in personal capacity government has nothing to do with it directly or indirectly."

Earlier, Congress leader Digvijay Singh had raised questions about the meeting. Referring to the closeness of Vaidik to saffron leadership, Singh had asked whether he had gone to meet Saeed as the 'envoy of the government.'

Union information and broadcasting minister, Prakash Javdekar took a dig at Congress saying that Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front leader Yasin Malik met Saeed in Pakistan during UPA rule. Besides, Congress ministers, Javdekar said, referred to Osama bin Laden as 'Osamaji' Hafiz Saeed as 'Hafiz sahib.'

—With inputs from agencies

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