Rajdeep , this is not done!

On Sunday evening, I was leisurely watching news on different news channels, when suddenly my cell phone rang. The lady speaking from the other side wanted to know of my reaction about the alleged attack on TV Today’s Consulting Editor Rajdeep Sardesai outside the Madison Square in New York. I simply told her that our organization was against ‘any violence against anybody particularly against a journalist. However, I will not make any comment on the alleged incident till I know the full facts'. The caller banged the telephone in apparent anger at my reply. Thereafter I kept on changing the channels through remote. I tried to get some information on the 'Headlines Today' and ' Aaj Tak' but there was no news about the incident. Yesterday afternoon i.e. on 29.09.2014, when I reached my office, I opened my email and found a video clipping link, which gave the full picture of the incident. I was aghast and appalled to find that the story as was circulated by Rajdeep Sardesai contained embroidered truth.

Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai was seen in the video provoking the exuberant crowd, which had assembled to welcome and express its solidarity to the Indian Prime Minister. Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai even used unsavory language against the people who were shouting ‘Modi-Modi’. It is highly unbecoming of the journalist of the stature of Rajdeep Sardesai to have behaved like a street-smart ruffian, that too, on the foreign soil where nobody should speak against a leader who represents the country. Mr. Narendra Modi has not gone to America as the leader of the Bhartiya Janata Party but as the Prime Minister of India. To rake up  the issue of Gujarat Riots on this occasion showed the wickedness of Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai.

What is most distressing to learn is that when an NRI was trying to tell him that ‘how can you blame Mr. Narendra Modi when the Apex court of India has not found anything against him?’ But you cannot convince a person who is prejudiced one. Another shocking thing is that contemptuous tweet of Rajdeep Sardesai , where he has used the words like idiots for the cheering crowds. Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai is free to have his own opinion about anybody but he does not have any right to foist it on others.

The drama that was enacted on the foreign land to garner sympathy in India is condemnable. It is Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai, who is to be squarely to be blamed for it. There is no dearth of embedded journalists in India. Some of them are communist charlatans, some are blind supporters of the BJP, and many have been fed and flourished by the Congress Party. Other smaller parties have journalists on their rolls and they show their loyalty to their masters, when the occasion demands. Worrisome part, however, is that these journalists masquerade as independents and thus cause incalculable damage to the profession by their duplicity and hypocrisy. The journalists working for political parties are, therefore much better than these wolves who roam in sheep’s clothing, because others know their opinions. I personally feel that this dishonesty among the journalists has spread for many reasons like the insecurity of jobs and their desire to take advantage from the political parties.

Recently a classmate of mine has been elected to the Rajya Sabha. He happened to be the Editor of a major Hindi newspaper of Bihar and Jharkhand. He has been posing himself as the most objective,fearless, independent journalist. But the way he has traded his profession of journalism and for the Rajya Sabha seat betrays the abominable trait of bartering the profession for gains. There is nothing wrong to become a sympathizer, supporter or the worker of any political party but it is certainly wrong to exchange journalism for one's personal gains or to settle scores from those who are opposed to the philosophy of so-called independent journalists.

Now I feel happy that I did not fall into the trap of the lady journalist, who wanted me to condemn the enthusiastic NRI s for no fault of theirs.

Glaring Example of Justice Denied

Many times, Litigation is self-defeating. There have been many instances when litigants have wasted their lifetimes, evaporated all their resources in contesting the cases but ultimately got nothing. In a Hindi novel ‘Raag Darbari’, written by Sahitya Academy award winner Dr. Shri Lal Shukla, a former IAS officer, has very poignantly pictured the plight of a pathetic lame man who wasted his whole life in making rounds of the courts.  From a teenager he became an old man and ultimately died, but did not get any relief from the temple of justice. 

 It has now become a trite to say that justice delayed is justice denied. There must be thousands of cases pending across the country for more than 50-60 years. There is one case in Allahabad High Court, which is pending for more than hundred years, and many generations of the litigators have passed away but till date the judgment has not seen the light. This speaks volumes about the state of affairs and the extremely slow process of justice in India. This is one aspect of justice.

 In our country when people go to the court they get resigned to their fate  and often say in jest and disdain  that one can be sure of death but there is no surety about the justice. Litigation for many people is like a bad habit of intoxication. They will spend hundred times more than what they would get if ultimately the decision comes in their favour. The saying of ‘penny wise pound-foolish’ is very apt and appropriate for such types of people. However, what can be said about the government and the agencies of the government when they go for long and protracted litigation to deny the justice to the opposite parties. This can be nothing else but the mental perversion and sickness of the persons who decide to carry on the litigation, which is of no use. Such litigations are kept alive at the huge cost on the exchequer. They, however, conveniently forget that money goes from the pool of the taxpayers. According to a data released by the Law Ministry more than sixty percent cases, which are pending before various High Courts and the Supreme Court belong to the Central Government or the State Governments. In all these pending cases, the Governments are either as a plaintiffs/ petitioners or as defendants/ respondents. The number of such cases can be reduced to a negligible level provided the authorities responsible for taking actions perform their duties in appropriate and judicious manner. It is because of their non-application of mind and audacious behavior that the cases are initiated. What is worse is that they do not make any sincere efforts to resolve the cases in amicable manner.  

 Here is a startling case of a poor DTC bus conductor who was compelled to fight his case for more than four decades. And for what? it was the dishonesty of the bus conductor for the princely amount of 5 Naya Paisa. According to the story that has been published in the last week of July of this year in the Times of India that the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) fought the case against a bus conductor Ranvir Singh for more than four decades. The case started in the year 1973. The conductor was on duty in a bus going towards Mayapuri.. A flying squad of ticket checkers found him guilty for issuing a ticket to a woman for 10 paise, while she should have been given the ticket of 15 paise. They charged the bus conductor. He was suspended. A departmental inquiry was conducted and he was found guilty of causing loss of 5 paisa to the public exchequer and was dismissed from the service.

 The bus conductor Ranvir Singh challenged the decision of the DTC before a Labour Court on the ground that he has been victimized because he was not allowed the opportunity to explain his innocence. The court ruled in his favour. The ruling came in 1990, which directed the DTC to reinstate the workman with full back wages. The Labour Court also said that the dismissal of employee was disproportionate to the alleged crime. The DTC was unrelenting and it challenged the decision of the Labour Court in the Delhi High Court, which dismissed the writ appeal in 2008 but by that time, the bus conductor had retired from his job. Therefore, he demanded the post retiral benefits with back wages. The blockheaded DTC officials decided to oppose the claim of the dismissed workman. However, the High Court again decided in favour of the workman.

Interestingly in a query made through RTI, the DTC has informed that it has spent Rs. 47,795/- on paying the  fees to advocates towards the litigation expenses. In addition to it, it has paid Rs. 8, 96,293/- only towards back wages from July 1976 to September 2002 till the workman retired from his service.If the authorities had taken right decision at the right time worker would have been saved from harassment and the department from botheration, In addition to it,there would not been crowd of cases in the docket.

 How bizarre is this case? And more than the case how sick and perverted has been the mentality of the authorities, who spent huge amount of money for the loss of mere pittance of 5 paise is reflected in this case. This is a classic example of monumental insensitivity of authority towards the department and the society, whose trust they are supposed to hold with good faith, sincerity and transparency. This is not loss of money but also the loss of the services of a person, which could have been utilized for the organisation. To top it all. it was a personal loss for the person, who fought the case for nearly 41 years and it will be very difficult to fathom the anguish, the mental trauma, the loss of prestige and economic hardships by the person who bro the brunt the heartless authorities. During this period, the dismissed workman might not have been able to educate his children and might not have been able to take care of his family. No body knows who came forward to help him in the marriage of his daughter, if any, or in the sickness of his family members.

 Another most damaging and deleterious effect of such litigations is to compel the employee(s) to become dishonest. There can hardly be any doubt that the dismissed bus conductor must have worked somewhere clandestinely for his and his family's survival which he could not have divulged to anybody for fear of being denied the back wages. This is an open secret that during the period of dismissal and pendency of the case workmen surreptitiously work somewhere for their livelihoods and the back wages that they get at the end of the litigations are the dividends and the windfalls for them. There is no doubt that this long drawn litigation could have been avoided with little bit of application of mind by eschewing the recalcitrant attitude of officials.

 The judiciary also cannot escape the responsibility of creating social tensions by delaying the cases for decades together. The need of the hour is to devise ways and means for swift delivery of justice. And in this process the use of technology should be enhanced of the benefit of society. Be that as it may, the above narrated real story tells a lot about the system, whether it is department, executive or the judiciary and they all have to make concerted efforts to change the scenario as it exists today..

To

Hon’ble Prime Minister of India

PMO, Raisina Hill, South Block,

New Delhi - 110011

Dear and respected Prime Minister,

Here is a request with a suggestion. The request is you to change the name of district Faizabad (Uttar Pradesh) and appropriately rename it as Awadh or Saket. It can also be renamed as Ayodhya that is only seven kilometers away from the district headquarters and is known throughout the world for being the birthplace of Lord Ram.

The world over there has been a trend to restore the old and ancient glory of the places by renaming them. In our country Madras has been renamed as Chennai, Bombay as Mumbai, Calcutta as Kolkata, Bangalore as Bengaluru, Vizag as Visakhapatnam, Banaras as Varanasi etc. Even the names of the many countries have been changed for retaining the old glory with which they were attached to. For instance, our neighboring countries like Ceylon has become Sri Lanka and Burma is rechristened as Myanmar.

I come from the Awadh region and I personally find it very painful that an ancient city was ravaged and devastated by a whimsical tyrant so much so that its name was changed to Faizabad. No body knows why was it done and why the old name Saket was not allowed to be retained? This was obviously done some times during the Mughal Period and the people of the area were so suppressed and terror- stricken that they could not raise their voice against this cultural barbarity.

The expectations of the people have gone up to sky high with your ascendancy as the Prime Minister of India. Although all the expectations and aspirations of the people cannot be met or fulfilled, yet change of the names of places with those of our rich heritage will not be difficult to be done. It can be achieved without any murmur of opposition from any side. Even professional secularists will not have the courage to oppose it. The people will get a sense of pride and belonging with which they have been associated with from time a memorial with this bold act of this government.

Needless to say, that the name signifies the quality and characteristic of a person, place of thing. There may be some crazy people, who will quote the Shakespearean line – What is there in the name? But even a devil can quote scriptures.  The fact is that if the rose is called by any other name, it will undoubtedly give the same fragrance but there will always be chances to be disillusioned. People often are attracted or distracted, in the first blush, only by the names. If some one calls a rose by marigold, it will certainly betray his/her ignorance. How apt is the Sanskrit saying, which says ‘Yatha Naamah Thataa Gunah’. Hence, it will be in the fitness of the things and time that the name of Faizabad should be changed to either Awadh or Ayodhya or Saket.

I have every reason to believe that a person of your understanding and courage will take the appropriate steps to fill the peoples’ heart with a feel of pride.

In addition, here is a suggestion. The name of Lucknow, Ahmedabad and Allahabad should also be appropriately changed. It is a painful to see that the legacy of slavery is carried on day in a day out in place like Delhi, which is the capital of India. I fail to understand why the names of some of the roads were named after independence, associated with the persons who ruled over this country with the cruelty, insensitivity and heartlessness. For example, I do not find any logic as to why we have Akbar Road, Humayun Road, Babar Road, Aurangzeb Road, Shahjahan Road, Tughlaq Road and Safdarjung Road in Delhi as these names are associated with Mughal rulers, who did not have any care or concern for the people of the country.

I, therefore, earnestly appeal to you that right steps should be taken to rectify these Himalayan wrongs and injustices, which have been shamelessly perpetrated to crush the honour and self-respect of the people. 

Thanking you and with warm regards,

Yours faithfully,

Parmanand Pandey

Advocate-on-Record

Supreme Court of India

Give the status of permanent citizen to Taslima Nasrin

I read in today’s newspapers that the long term VISA of the famous Bengali writer Taslima Nasrin has been extended for two months. She is a celebrated writer and her contribution to the literature has been immense. It is not only an insult to her but is a blot on the secular fabric of India which appeared to have been caved in the pressure of Islamic fundamentalists. I have gone through one of her novels ‘Lajja’ (Shame). It is a marvelous piece of literature. Its narrative is unique, full of empathy, sorrow, pain, suffering and heart-rending at places. She has vividly pictured in the novel the mindset of the bigots and fanatics of the Muslim community perpetrating atrocities on the Hindu minority of Bangladesh. Although it has been written in the background of anti-Hindu riots that broke after the demolition of the disputed structure of Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid on 6 December 1992, yet it provides the glimpse of the over-all pitiable conditions caused by fear and terror under which the Hindus have been living in Bangladesh, erstwhile East Pakistan, after partition of India in 1947.

The Hindus, living in Bangladesh from time a memorial, generation after generation  have been made to live like second rather third class citizens. The Hindu community of Bangladesh has to suffer indescribable barbarities by goondas belonging to the Muslim community. Their properties have been plundered, houses have been burnt, women have been raped, children have been maimed, men have been killed and family after family have been forcibly converted to a religion in which they did not have even a iota of faith. Those wearing dhoties were targeted and forced to wear lungies, those celebrating Durga pooja were asked to become iconoclasts and the worshippers of cows were compelled to become beefeaters. Humanity has got ashamed of the savagery of such a scale. Lajja is, therefore, a very apt title of the novel.

The novel is very realistic one and is based on facts. The description might have some fictional touches here and there to make it readable but largely it is a true story. In the novel the main character Sudhamoy, a patriarch of the Hindu family feels that the Bangladesh is his motherland. He has been living under the impression that his motherland (Bangladesh) would not let him down. His wife Kiranmoyi stood by her husband, his son Suranjan also believed that nationalism will be stronger than communalism and he used to have more faith and trust in his Muslim friends then Hindu friends. Nilanjana is the young daughter, who asks her brother Suranjan to shift the family to the house of any Muslim friend for the safety. However, her all hopes were shattered when men, including the friends of his brother, turned into wolves in the wake of horrendous communal riots.

There are nearly 20 to 25 million illegal Bangladeshis living in India. Communal riots often break out in Assam, other Northeastern states, Bihar and Bengal because of illegal migrant Bangladeshis. All major cities of India are inundated with these illegal Bangladeshis. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been saying during his election campaign that his government would see to it that illegal Bangladeshis are sent back to their country. Although, no tangible efforts seem to have been made so far to expatriate the Bangladeshis, yet what we find is that a famous writer like Taslima Nasrin's, long-term visa has been extended only for two months. She is, without doubt, an epitome of courage, conviction and secularism. India must stand by like a rock behind her.

Taslima Nasrin's stay in India will strengthen the roots of secularism. She is a victim of the fatwa of zealots even in India. She is arguably the most controversial writer of South Asia. Her grandfather was a Hindu, who converted to Islam not by choice but under compulsion. She is a medical doctor by education but has taken to full-time writing and is an acclaimed across the world. Meyebela, My Girlhood: A Memoir of Growing up Female in a Muslim World is Nasrin's heart-wrenching account of a desperate childhood in Mymensingh, a relatively small town in Bangladesh. In this memoir (one of two volumes), Nasrin openly questions her religion, Islam, and its discrimination against women. Her sad and depressing childhood was an unfortunate byproduct of a unique combination of cruel elements, one of which was a repressive society where she says "I was simply supposed to accept without asking questions whatever the grownups decided to bestow on me, be it punishment or reward." Her uncles horrifically abused this woman. Taslima Nasrin’s books are banned in Bangladesh but read with the great interest throughout the world. Even in India she has to live in anonymity because of the threat of religious tyrants. She is welcome to live in western countries but she longs to live in India, particularly in Calcutta because here she finds the affinity of the people and homogeneity of culture, language and eating habits.

It may be possible that this short sighted decision of extending the Visa only for two months might have been taken by bureaucracy without the knowledge of political leadership. However, now since the matter has become known to everybody, the Government of India must step in to grant her the status of a permanent citizen to Taslima; so that she may not have to face any further ignominy and insult. 

Is Justice Katju a whistle-blower or rank opportunist?

If corruption in judiciary is a secret, then it is an open secret and it has been continuing for quite long time. It will be an oxymoron to say that the judiciary is insulated from the executive. The fact is that even after the introduction of the collegium system only such persons have been elevated to the bench, who have worked as the Law Officers in the High Courts or in the Supreme Court.It is difficult to find any advocate being elevated to the bench if he or she has not been a law officer at one point of time or the other. The reason behind it is that the state is the largest litigant in the courts, the law officers get the frequent opportunities to appear before the bench, and therefore they have the better prospects of being considered by the collegium for their elevation.

Now the controversy generated by the so-called revelation of Justice Katju about a corrupt judge of the Madras High Court is the old and stale one. Justice Katju has not named the judge in his disclosure but almost advocate of the Madras High Court knew about the late Justice Ashok Kumar. However, the way Justice Katju is projecting his image of a whistle blower is far from the realty. The more he is a defending the long spell of his silence and inaction during the period when he was holding the post of the Chief Justice of Madras High Court and  the judge of the Supreme Court of India, the more he becomes a grotesque picture  of his image  in the eyes of the public. He has no explanation as to why he remained silent for three years after his retirement as the judge of the Supreme Court.

 It may be noted here that Writ Petition was filed against the late Justice Ashok Kumar in the Supreme Court and the petitioners were the Senior Lawyer Shanti Bhusan and Advocate Kamini Jaiswal. The Supreme Court, although,refused to interfere with his appointment as a judge but it observed that the then Chief Justice of India R. C. Lahoti should not have been influenced by the stand of the Government in favour of confirmation of Justice Ashok Kumar. Where was Justice Katju at that time? He was the Chief Justice of Madras High Court, of course. What did he do then? Nothing, of course. What has been his contributiuon in purgating judiciary from corruption? The answer is big ZERO. His claim of a whistle blower is nothing but a preposterous statement.

Was it not the duty of Justice Katju to have sacrificed the judgeship of the Supreme Court  for the sake of  independent and corruption-free judiciary? Now Justice Katju says that he did not bring all these corrupt practices in the public domain because he was holding the august office as the judge of the Supreme Court.  How ridiculous it is? By saying so Justice Katju is a painting himself with the laughable colours.

 There is a difference between a whistle -blower and a person, who opens the lid for his/ her own interests. Not long ago Justice Katju wrote a very stinking article against the present Prime Minister of India saying, that all the perfumes of the Arabia would not able to wipe out the stains blood from the hands of Narendra Modi for the massacre of Muslims in Gujrat. He never knew that Narendra Modi would romp home with thunderous victory in the Lok Sabha election; otherwise, he would never have dared to write the article. In reply to that article Mr. Arun Jetly, the present Finance and Defence minister of India wrote another article in the same newspaper saying that the article of Justice Katju amounted to an exercise of bungalow hunting in Lutyens’ Delhi.

 Needless to say, that when Narendra Modi came to power Justice Katju started cozying  with present dispensation in different,, covert and over manners. Firstly; he became the champion of Uniform Civil Code, which he never supported in any one of his judgments either of the judge of different High Courts or as the Judge of the Supreme Court. Now when he is raising the matter related to the late Justice Ashok Kumar, he is trying to develop proximity with Narendra Modi government.

 However, there is a silver lining in the so-called in the controversy raked by Justice Katju. This has given the opportunity to immediately go in for the National Judical Commission for the appointment of the judges because the system of Colloegum has become rotten. If the exclusive control of the executive in the appointment of the judges was wrong, the present system is no good. Therefore, there is a crying need that the government of today must discuss and debate about the National Judicial Commission and introduce a new system for the appointment of the judges, where the transparency must be the key factor. 

The debate in public against the corruption in the judiciary should become more vocal. Till now judiciary has been treated as Holy Cow, this has further caused damage not only to the judiciary but to our healthy democratic system. In the tail end, it is expected that Justice Katju would opt out from the  second term of the Chairmanship of the Press Council of India otherwise; an impression will go down that he is rank opportunist, who has created the controversy to serve his own ulterior motives to retain a his bungalow in the Lutyens’ Delhi.

Disclosure of corrupt judge in Madras High court by Justice Katju reveals less but conceals more

The so-called revelation of Justice Markandey Katju about a corrupt judge in Madras High Court is a classic example of opportunism. What is shocking is not that there was a corrupt judge in the Madras High Court but the disclosure of Markendey Katju after years of his retirement from the Supreme Court of India. He is presently holding the post of the Chairman of the Press Council of India after his retirement as a judge of the Supreme Court. There is no gainsaying that there are large numbers of corrupt, incompetent judges, who are bereft of any moral scruples. Such judges are not confined only to the Madras High Court but they can be found in all High Courts across the country.

The moot question is why Justice Markandey Katju remained tight lipped for such a long period of time? Why did he not open his mouth until he was in position of authority as the judge of the Apex Court? The judge about whom he has referred to in his lead article of the Times of India of 21^st July, 2014 can be easily identified by the advocates of Madras High Court. He was none else but the late Justice Ashok Kumar, who expired nearly five years ago in 2009. The late Justice Ashok Kumar had granted bail to the DMK leader Shri Karunanidhi and it is a known fact Shri Karunanidhi was instrumental in his elevation as the judge of the Madras High Court.

Be that as it may, Justice Markandey Katju was the Chief Justice of Madras High Court but in his news article in the Times of India, he has displayed the timidity of not naming either the late Justice Ashok Kumar or the octogenarian leader of Tamilnadu K. Karunanidhi, who was responsible in providing the protective cover to him. Granted that DMK was in alliance with the Congress Party, which was in power at the Centre and Shri Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister was a very weak person ready to bend backwards to save his seat. However, the million-dollar question is who prevented Justice Markandey Katju from writing to the then Chief Justice of India and the Collegium of senior judges and informing them with the factual position. As a Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, he could have prevented Justice Ashok Kumar from holding the court as is the precedent the Bombay High Court. And this was also done in the case of Justice Ramaswami of the Supreme Court of India, he was divested of the responsibility of presiding over the bench, when allegations of corruption flew thick and fast against him.

It is in the pubic domain that impeachment proceedings were proceeded against him but it could not get through in Parliament because the then Prime Minister Shri P.V. Narsinga Rao decided to abstain during the crucial voting. The recent example of Justice Soumitra Sen of Calcutta High Court when impeachment proceedings were initiated against him in Parliament but before the voting could take place he resigned from the post, thus making all debates in parliament infrctuous. Justice P.D. Dinakaran’s case is also an example that how a tainted could be effectively made dys-functional?

Therefore, if Justice Markandey Katju was interested in cleansing the judiciary from corruption he should have taken the lead when he was the Chief Justice of Madras High Court but alas, he did not do any such thing. He is now flogging the name of a person who is no more in this world. It is very easy to level allegations against a dead man but very difficult to prove because the dead man will not come to contravene the allegations. All the same, it is also the part of the our culture that a person who is dead should not be soiled and besmirched. Here Justice Katju has again committed the ethical wrong and thereby he has done damage to the credibility of the Supreme Court of India by naming those Chief Justices, who have already retired. Now it, the turn of those retired Chief Justices namely; Justice R.C. Lahuti, Justice Y. K. Sabharwal and Justice K.G. Balakrishnan who are fortunately alive to set the records straight. For the restoration of the credibility of judiciary, it will be in the fitness of things that all three retired Chief Justices must do so, otherwise go down in the history with tainted image.

The owe it the nation whether they compromised the independence of the judiciary by accommodating corrupt judged under the political pressure of the day? They must also tell the nation why they yielded to the pressure. Having said it all, Justice Katju also owes explanation to the people of the country that why he not made efforts to purify the judiciary when he was holding the high positions of Chief Justice of the Madras and Delhi High Courts and the Supreme Court of India? What prevented him to do so? If he fails to offer satisfactory explanation then he will also carry the baggage of infamy in history. It is pertinent to point out that Justice Markandey Katju’s term as the Chairman of the Press Council of India is coming to close in the month of September 2014. In case he gets the second term, the public will have the impression that here is a person who can manage the good of both worlds irrespective of whether it is Congress of BJP.

This further underlines the fact that the National Judiciary Commission has become the need of the hour and it must be introduced sooner than later for the appointment of the judges. So long the immense discretionary powers remains vested in the members of Collegium, there will be no scope of rooting out the corruption. Transparency in the appointment of judges and introduction of technology must be brought about as soon as possible. There is no doubt that is status-quoist will oppose it tooth and nail but for any change, the defeat of status quoism needs to be hardly emphasized.

Vaidik -Saeed Meeting Cries For Satisfactory Answers

  

Meeting of Shri Ved Pratap Vaidik with terrorist Hafiz Saeed of in Lahore, the other day, has caused lot of furore across India. The reasons for indignation and hullabaloo over this meeting are very valid and genuine. The terrorist Hafiz Saeed was the mastermind of 26/11 Mumbai terror attack of 2008 which resulted into killing of nearly 200 innocent lives. Among those who were killed were tourists; who were staying in famous Taj Mahal Hotel near the Gateway of India, journalists, police officers etc. All terrorists, except one Mohammad Azmal Kasab, who caused death and devastation in Bombay, were killed. The arrest of terrorist Kasab was the major achievement of Indian forces, which established beyond all doubt that it was the handiwork of the ISI and its henchmen like Md. Hafiz Saeed.  Pakistan was always in the denial mode saying that it had nothing to do with Mumbai terror attack .Pakistan even shed crocodile tears by joining the chorus of condemnation coming from all over the world.

Nevertheless, the deception and the acting of Pakistan were exposed when Intelligence Agencies of the world unambiguously pointed out that the terror attack was planed and executed from Pakistan. The person, who was guilty of this heinous crime, was Mohammed Hafiz Saeed, who has always been living in multi layered protective cover of the ISI.

United State of America said that Hafiz Saeed get all support from Mullahs and Military of Pakistan. He has been declared by the UN as an international terrorist and carries the bounty of 10 million dollar on his head, which comes to INR 60 crore and Rs.100 crore in Pakistani currency. The lies of Pakistan were further nailed when Kasab gave all details during his trial.

This is, however, different matter. The issue here is whether Shri  Vaidik was justified in meeting the terrorist, who has been spewing venom  against India day in and day out. If Mr. vaidik met him in the capacity of journalists, which he is claiming to, then ther5e is nothing wrong in it because journalists have been meeting dacoits, terrorists, dictators and dreaded persons like Hitler, Musolini and Ayatolla Khumeini. The purpose of such meetings and interviews has been to know the mind, objectives and modus operendi of such cruel and perverted persons. However, the meeting of Shri Vaidik was most appalling, to say the least.Mr. Vaidik did meet alone, without any evidence. He did not take any note of the interview nor did he carry any audio / video tape of his interview.

What is even more shocking is that he started giving solution to the Kashmir problem surrendering the interests of India. He went to the extent of suggesting that both sides of Kashmir should be allowed to merge and be declared independent of India and Pakistan. This is outrageous and outlandish suggestion, which needs to be decried and deprecated by every India. It is against the spirit of the constitution and the resolution of Indian Parliament. Moreover, who is Shri Vaidik to offer this suggestion on behalf of the Indian Government of India and people of India? Who authorized him to propose such bizarre opinion to that despicable terrorist and the enemy of India?

What, therefore, Shri Vaidik did in his meeting with that scum Saeed was nothing but un-journalistic, anti Indian and unbecoming of any sane person, who has shown complete insensitivity to the people of India and particularly to those families, whose near dears lost their lives in the terror attack.

Shri Vaidik is a known braggart and namedropper. He claims proximity with every Indian Prime Minister after 1977 cutting across political spectrum. Nobody knows the reality but the fact is that of late, he became very close to Baba Ram Dev. But see his ludicrous question to Saeed that if Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi  visits Pakistan- will you welcome him or not? Who is that idiot to welcome Modi? Why should any Indian, much less Shri Modi, expect any welcome from that criminal? Apart from he asked he wanted get silly information about his marriages and wives. He has not given any satisfactory answer as to0 facilitated his meeting with Saeed? These are the nagging questions, which need to be answered by Shri Vaidik, otherwise his conduct woulfd continue to be under reproach.