NEW DELHI: Dr. Ved Prakash Vaidik shot to national fame with his tweeted picture, schmoozingw ith with India’s Enemy Number One —the Mumbai 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed. Charioteers of ‘outrage’ ranted on, Parliament was stalled for four days, protesters thronged Jantar Mantar, his effigies were burnt but the enigma around the journalist-cum-activist-cum-peacenik-cum-political observer-cum-media advisor has only deepened. Vaidik narrated more tales to justify his Hafiz meeting; each tale more incredulous than the other.
As a regular visitor to Pakistan and Afghanistan to realise his dream of Aryana (United South Asia), 63-year-old Vaidik, the former editor with PTI Bhasha and Navbharat Times, claimed to be a close associate of Pakistani Prime Ministers ranging from Nawaz Sharif, Benazir Bhutto, former Pak President Asif Zardari, and even Afghan president Hamid Karzai.
A Pakistani journalist who interacted With Vaidik told Sunday Standard about his exploits. “He told me that he was behind the charter of democracy signed by Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif.” The charter was signed in 2006 by Bhutto and Sharif in London, while in exile, paving way for the eventual exit of President Pervez Musharraf and the return of democracy.
“It was a bit too much,” the journalist added in disbelief .
With an almost Quixotian brag, Vaidik regaled the Pakistani media at the Islamabad press club about him meeting Pervez Mushraff’s brother in New York in 1999.
“Vaidik told me that his friend in New York took him to another person’s house, whose host instead of entertaining his guests, was glued to the television showing the military couple in Pakistan. When we asked him, it turned out that the host was Musharraf’s brother. That’s what he told us,” the Pakistani journalist said recalling the Vaidik’s revelation.
Vaidik who recently shared the stage with Baba Ramdev and senior BJP leaders including Narendra Modi during the conference on black money has been very vocal about his meetings with VIPs. He regularly emailed his pictures with Sharief and Zardari. In one of these picture emailed to journalists Vaidik’s son is seen with Zardari in Dubai.
Journalistically speaking Vaidik had landed himself a scoop as he dined with the world’s most wanted terrorist at the latter's den in Muridke, Pakistan. But only if it was so. Vaidik reportedly discussed Modi’s personal life and also Saeed’s three wives. Vaidik even declared Saeed was the man one could hold a dialogue with India.
Describing the meeting after the controversy, Vaidik wrote: “I was surprised that he was agitated with my tough questions but was never angry. How can such a dangerous terrorist be so calm. The initial a few minutes with Saeed with were tense, I wondered if the situation doesn’t become ugly. There were armed men inside and outside the room. But I had seen a similar scene with Afghan PM Hafizullah Amin 35 years ago. In my one hour meeting with Hafeez, there were no vulgar words. At the end I thought he was a enigma.”
Vaid says that after the meeting the terrorist saw him off to his car, the way Nawaz Sharif sued to. "I think courts, government, and the Army can continue to do their work, but dialogue with Saeed should take place," he added.
He had gone to Pakistan to attend a day-long seminar on Regional Peace Institute in Islamabad. After his fellow Track-2 colleagues had left, Vaidik stayed back for two more weeks. He was apparently escorted and accompanied by a Dunya TV journalist, who was showing him around Islamabad.
Another ideologue with roots in RSS described Vaidik as name dropper. "Whenever I would call him, he was quick to drop names, and on same occasion even claimed that he couldnt be disturbed because he was on the phone with Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president—who even prostrated at his feet while walking along the Thames in London, as our freelance peacenik claims.
Vaidik’s biodata describes him as an activist who had gone to jail when he was just 12 years old. He says he was jailed when agitating over language issued. He was expelled from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi for “daring” to write his PhD thesis in Hindi. In the end he won, his bio claims. Having travelled over 80 countries he claims to personally knowing several heads of state. Curiously his personal rapport with these dignitaries is part of his biography in Hindi, but is missing in English translation. Like Vaidik.