New Delhi - The upper house of Indian Parliament Rajya Sabha on Monday was adjourned after members of the house created uproar over the meeting of yoga guru Ramdev's aide with Hafeez Saeed in Islamabad.
As soon as the house met for the day, members of the house, including Congress leader Digvijay Singh, raised questions regarding the meeting between Ved Pratap Vaidik and Hafeez Saeed.
Amid the din, Chairman M Hamid Ansari adjourned the house.
Baba Ramdev's close aide Ved Pratap Vaidik sparked off a major controversy when he met JuD chief Hafiz Saeed in Islamabad.
Ved Pratap Vaidik said that his meeting with him should not be treated otherwise as he met him being a journalist. Yoga Guru Ramdev also said that he might have met him in order to change him. But this issue has become the subject of debate in political circle.
"I have never been a special envoy for any PM, I am my own envoy", said Ved Pratap Vaidik on Digvijaya Singh's tweet.
I am a man of ideas. Men of ideas like Rousseau and Karl Marx were not of any country alone', Ved Pratap Vaidik tweeted.
The Congress tried to corner the government on the meeting saying it could not have taken place without the knowledge of authorities and claimed the scribe was “very close to Sangh parivar”.
Congress MPs sought a detailed statement from the government on the purpose and motive behind the meeting and even demanded the arrest of the journalist. “We are going to make an issue out of it because it is not the case of an ordinary journalist.
He (journalist) was very close to RSS, closely associated with Ramdev. He has been going to Pakistan and Afghanistan and all the time he is close to the Sangh parivar,” Congress leader Saifuddin Soz said outside Parliament. Union Minister Arun Jaitley said in Rajya Sabha that Government has nothing to do with “directly, indirectly or even remotely” with any journalist meeting Saeed, adding “government has not sanctioned permission to anyone for meeting him (Saeed).”
But the opposition party kept up its attack saying it was no “ordinary issue” and the scribe could not have met Saeed without the knowledge of Indian authorities. Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said the country needs to be taken into confidence about this issue. “We have sought from the government that a reply is needed…. Why had Vaidik gone? Is he an envoy or is some back channel diplomacy taking place? This country should know.