Image via Indiatoday.com
The Modi government has gone into damage control mode after the social media erupted in outrage after right wing scribe Ved Pratap Vaidik, who is reportedly close to the BJP leadership, had an hour long chat with India baiter, Hafiz Saeed, fuelling rumours that the Indian government was engaging in Track 3 diplomacy with the alleged 26/11 mastermind.
As photographs of Saeed’s tete-a-tete with Vaidik along with leaked snippets of conversation – among other things, Saeed reportedly expressed an interest in visiting India to attend media summits, get interviewed by Koel Purie, like Musharraf was, on the sets of On the couch with Koel, and judge popular dance show, Jhalak Dikhh La Jaa – were met with howls of protest, leaving BJP’s traditional support base befuddled while AAP trolls and Congress leaders had a field day. Even Mani Shankar Aiyar expressed outrage over the meeting. “I am all for uninterrupted and uninterruptable diaglogue with Pakistanis but I draw the line when it comes to Hafiz sahab,” Aiyar barked.
The Modi government was initially mulling a Manmohanesque approach over the raging storm but all hell broke loose when even Kanchan Gupta criticized the meeting with this observation:
Defending what is indefensible through inventive means is wrong and uncalled for. I do hope Vaidik meeting Hafiz Saeed doesn’t go unnoticed.
— Kanchan Gupta (@KanchanGupta) July 13, 2014
The Kanchan Gupta tweet opened the floodgates as IHs of all hues and persuasions took to Twitter to express their outrage in colorful language.
“That’s when we realized that we had to send out a strong signal to our base that we are not doing business with Saeed. And what better way to convey that than have our Sushma Swarajji block Saeed on Twitter?” a PMO official, privy to the proceedings, revealed. Prime Minister Modi himself reportedly oversaw Swaraj overseeing her aide blocking the JuD chief’s handle on Twitter, given the gravity of the situation.
For good measure, Sushma Swaraj also tweeted: “I repeat, let there be no doubt whatsoever, I have blocked Hafiz Saeed to underscore my govt’s zero tolerance approach to terrorism.”
(Based on an idea by Ashwin S Kumar)