Curious case of Ved Pratap Vaidik

Ved Pratap Vaidik whose meeting with the terror chief Hafiz Sayeed in Pakistan has created a furore in the nation was actually believed to have been assigned by the National Security Adviser Ajit Doval for track two negotiations. If the buzz in the political circles is to be believed, then he was sent to Pakistan with a clear instruction to prepare ground for Narendra Modi’s visit. Sources reveal that he went with the message that the Pakistanis should  give the Modi government some time and should not accelerate the terrorist activities. Vaidik was doing track two in which he was supposed to find out what the terror chief and the intelligence agencies in Pakistan were planning and thinking after the Modi government take over. Vaidik is supposed to be very close to Pakistan establishment and was a guest at the swearing in of the Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharief. 

Vaidik was even instrumental in inviting Nawaz Sharief for Modi’s swearing in. Doval is said to have used the services of Vaidik at that time. He is well known to Doval. Both work in the RSS backed Vivekananda Foundation. 

He belongs to a RSS family and was particularly close to Atal Behari Vajpayee. Vajpayee had gone in his baraat. Vaidic is known to be a track two specialist. During P V Narasimha Rao‘s regime he along with RK Mishra of the Observer Foundation was engaged in the track two for Rao negotiating with the Hindutva forces and the Muslims on the Ayodhya issue .

At the orientation programme organised by the Parliament for the first time MPs, Sushma Swaraj also shared her experiences and gave some tips to the first time MPs. She told the MPs ‘to be a good speaker in Parliament you should always keep certain points in mind.  Never say bhaiyyon aur doston while making your speech because the MPs are supposed to be addressing the chair’. A BJP insider was heard saying that this as perhaps a dig on Narendra Modi who has been using the words bhaiiyyon and doston in his speeches. In fact in his maiden speech in Parliament while speaking on the motion on President’s address Modi had used the words bhaiyyon and doston quite a few times.

Despite total decimation of the Congress in Lok Sabha elections, hectic lobbying is on for the post of the UP PCC chief. Among the front runners are Rajesh Mishra ,the ex-MP from Varanasi, Sanjay Singh the Rajya Sabha MP from Amethi and Pramod Tiwari the Rajya Sabha MP who has reached the upper house with Mulayam Singh Yadav’s support besides of course Zafar Ali Naqvi and Rita Bahuguna the ex-UP PCC chief. But the most interesting thing is that for all the three front runners, the lobbyists are from Bijnor. Naseeb Pathan the wily MLC from Bijnor is lobbying for the Pramod Tiwari who is always in the race for any and every post. For Rajesh Mishra, the lobbying is being done by one Mujibur Rehman of Dhampur in Bijnor. Rehman was vice president of the Bijnor district Congress Committee and was the Congress candidate in the assembly polls from Dhampur. 

The names of the two Brahmin candidate are in keeping with the current thinking of the Congress party where they feel that after all other castes particularly the OBCs and the dalits have rallied behind Modi, there would soon be a vacuum among the Brahmins and there was need to woo the Brahmins who are feeling isolated and can leave the BJP if they have an alternative. Since Brahmins always comprised the core support base of the Congress, they may find it easier to return.

Congress should actually be concerned. Before the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP went ahead and struck deals with all the dalit lobbies in Maharashtra as well as in Bihar. They aligned with Ram Vilas Paswan in Bihar. In UP they got support from all other dalit castes but the Jatavs leaving Mayawati was a disaster for BSP.  Mayawati threatened by the BJP’s upsurge supported the BJP at the centre on the TRAI BILL under the pretext of how can she oppose the appointment of an officer from UP. 

But the real reason is that she had to preserve her constituency which could have reacted sharply. It is this apprehension of losing her support base that forced her to take the step of supporting the government. But it can be a major setback for the Congress which stands isolated in the political spectrum of entire north India.

Congress leaders have no remorse over the worst ever defeat of the party. Brazenly the Congress leaders particularly Rahul aides refuse to agree that it was the wrong strategy of the party that led to the defeat. But most of them are holding Rahul Gandhi responsible for the party’s defeat. Believe it or not, even Rahul‘s favourite like CP Joshi has been blaming Rahul Gandhi for the defeat. There are allegations that it was Joshi who was responsible for the factionalism in the state leading to the decimation of the Congress both in the Assembly and the Lok Sabha polls. But Joshi gave another explanation.

 

He said that the Congress votes polled in 2009 were intact but the party failed to attract and get the ten crore new votes polled that day. The ten crore young voters did not vote for the Congress they voted for Narendra Modi. Without naming Rahul Gandhi, Joshi a Rahul blamed him for the defeat. He said the Congress leadership failed to attract the imagination of this 

ten crore new voters.