Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: Senior journalist and yoga guru Ramdev`s aide Ved Pratap Vaidik on Tuesday said he interviewed Pakistani terrorist leader Hafiz Saeed by keeping his life at stake.
In an exclusive interview with Zee Media, Vaidik said the nation should felicitate him for taking Saeed`s interview.
His reaction came hours after the Indian government declared that it had nothing to do with a meeting Vaidik had with Saeed.
Declaring himself as a “nationalist”, Vaidik said he does not need anybody`s permission to conduct an interview.
The senior journalist added that Pakistani journalists arranged his meeting with Saeed, a day before he was to leave the Islamic country. I did the interview in the shadow of guns, added Vaidik.
Responding to demands that he should be arrested for meeting Saeed, Vaidik said former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh should also be put behind bars for meeting Pakistan`s Pervez Musharraf, who is more dangerous than the JuD chief.
Calling himself apolitical, Vaidik said he just fulfilled his duty of being a journalist.
The 69-year-old Vaidik`s meeting with Saeed has sparked a major row with the Congress seeking to pin down the Narendra Modi government by asking if Vaidik went as an official emissary.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has distanced itself from Vaidik and said it considers Saeed, accused of masterminding the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, a terrorist.
Also Read: Govt has nothing to do with Ved Vaidik-Hafiz Saeed meeting, says Sushma Swaraj
