Ved Pratap Vaidik (1944–2023) was an Indian journalist, speaker, political analyst and freelance columnist. He is known for creating history by giving all Indian languages the right to become a medium of expression at the highest educational level. He was the president of the Indian Language Conference, an organization formed to protect the rights of Indian languages. He is known for his meeting with terrorist mastermind Hafiz Saeed in 2014. He died of a heart attack on 14 March 2023 at the age of 78.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Ved Pratap Vaidik (also known as Dr. Vaidik) was born on Saturday, 30 December 1944 (age 78 years at the time of death) in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. He did his BA in Political Science, Philosophy, Sanskrit, Hindi and English from Vikram University, Ujjain in 1963. He completed his master’s degree in Political Science from Indore Christian College, Indore University in 1965. He learned Russian in 1967 and graduated from the School of International Studies, JNU in 1968. In French language. He completed his PhD in International Affairs at Jawaharlal Nehru University in 1971. During his research work on Afghan foreign policy for his PhD thesis, Vaidik studied at Columbia University in New York, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. and the Institute of the Peoples of Asia in Moscow. He also went to Afghanistan for extensive fieldwork for his research.
Scholarships and Fellowships
Dr. Vaidik has earned several scholarships and fellowships. He received the National Merit Scholarship from 1963-1964. He also earned a University Grants Commission Fellowship (1964–1966). He was a Senior Research Fellow at the Indian Council of Social Science Research for two years (1981–1983). He did his research work as a senior fellow at the Institute for Defense Studies and Analyzes and the School of International Studies (JNU).
Physical Appearance
Height (Approx): 5′ 8″
Hair Color: Half Bald
Eye colour: black
Family
He belonged to an Arya Samaj family of Indore.
parents and siblings
There is not much information about his parents and siblings.
wife and children
He was married to Dr. Vedavati Vaidik, who died in April 2019. She was a retired professor from the South Campus of Delhi University.
Vedavati Vaidik, wife of Ved Pratap Vaidik
He is survived by a son named Suparna Vaidik and a daughter named Aparna Vaidik.
livelihood
Journalist
Ved Pratap Vaidik started his career in journalism in 1958 as a proofreader. He worked as Editor (Opinions) at ‘Navbharat Times’ of Times Group for 12 years. He was the first co-editor of ‘Navbharat Times’ and later became the editor of the opinion department. He was the founder of ‘Bhasha’, the Hindi news agency of the Press Trust of India, and worked as editor there for more than a decade. He worked as the editorial director at ‘netjall.com’, a multilingual portal. He wrote columns independently for various news portals like Prabhasakshi. In a career spanning more than four decades in the field of journalism, he wrote more than 1000 articles, 2000 editorials, 50 research papers and hundreds of reviews for various newspapers and magazines including ‘Nayi Duniya’, ‘Dharmyug’, ‘The’. Times of India,’ ‘Weekly Hindustan,’ ‘Strategic Analysis,’ and ‘World Focus.’
Teacher
Dr. Vaidik was a visiting professor of international politics and journalism in many Indian and foreign universities. He taught political science at Hastinapur College (now Motilal Nehru College) of Delhi University for four years (1970–1974).
speaker
Ved Pratap Vaidik used to participate in speech competitions during his school and college days. He started addressing public meetings in his teenage years. Many Indian and foreign institutions and universities invited him to deliver special lectures. He represented India in international seminars several times. In 1962, he worked in All India Radio and Doordarshan, where he recorded more than a hundred programmes. Dr. Vaidik has also given interviews on various foreign news channels such as BBC, Voice of America and several European and Asian radio and TV stations. In 1999, he delivered three lectures as a member of the Indian delegation to the United Nations. The same year, he addressed the South Asian World Conference, which was organized by the University of Wisconsin.
satyagraha for hindi
Dr. Vaidik had immense love for Hindi language. He started the literary movement ‘Satyagraha for Hindi’ and went to jail for the first time in 1957 at the early age of 13. His PhD thesis titled ‘A Comparative Study of Afghanistan’s Relations with the US and the Soviet Union’ was rejected. JNU Because he wrote it in Hindi language and for this he was also expelled from the university. After his expulsion from the university, he took the matter to the Indian Parliament and many famous political leaders like Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia, Madhu Limaye, Acharya Kripalani, Hiren Mukherjee, Prakashveer Shastri, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Chandrashekhar, Hem Barua supported him and Kept my point. Uproar in Parliament for two years (1966-1967). After which Mrs. Indira Gandhi, Dr. Zakir Hussain, Dr. Sampurnanand, Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay, Dr. Trigun Sen, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, Dr. Harivansh Rai Bachchan also cooperated and along with Hindi, all other Indian languages were also introduced for the first time. Got recognized once. Medium of PhD thesis.
meeting with hafiz saeed
In 2014, Dr. Vaidik visited Pakistan with a group of journalists, foreign policy experts and politicians to participate in the Track-II conference on India-Pakistan relations organized by the Regional Peace Institute. During his tour in Pakistan, he met terrorist mastermind Hafiz Saeed on July 2, following which leaders of the Congress Party (which was an opposition party at that time) raised questions over his meeting with the terrorist and demanded his arrest. Opposition parties raised the issue of Dr. Vaidik’s meeting with Hafiz Saeed in Parliament and claimed that the meeting could not be possible without the permission of government officials; However, the government denied the claims. The then Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi claimed that Dr. Vaidik was a member of the RSS; However, Gandhi’s claims were later refuted by former RSS spokesperson Ram Madhav. Opposition parties had also called him the messenger of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Answering this in an interview, he said,
I have never been a special envoy of any Prime Minister; I am my own messenger. I have been meeting Presidents, Prime Ministers and rebel forces of many countries. I was not the messenger of any Prime Minister.”
He embroiled himself in another controversy when he made a statement at the Ajmer Literature Festival that he would “spit on all 545 MPs” if they supported the MPs who called him a “traitor and anti-national” over his meeting with Hafiz Saeed. Wanted to declare “anti”. , He believed that a journalist should meet all kinds of people.
Dr. Vedic with Hafiz Saeed
books
Ved Pratap Vaidik wrote several books on international politics and journalism some of which include ‘Indian Foreign Policy: New Signals’ (1971), ‘Afghanistan: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow’ (2002), ‘Superpower India’ (2005), ‘ Ethnic’ included. Crisis in Sri Lanka: India’s Alternatives’ (1986), and ‘Modi’s Foreign Policy’ (2017). His book ‘Soviet-American Rivalry in Afghanistan’ (National Publishing House, 1973), which was his PhD thesis, was the first book on international politics written in the Hindi language. His book ‘Hindi Journalism: Miscellaneous Dimensions’ (1976) is called ‘Encyclopedia of Hindi Journalism’ by critics. He also wrote several books on Indian languages, some of which are ‘Bringing Indian Languages: Why and How,’ ‘How should Hindi be a complete newspaper?’ (1994), and ‘Remove English: Why and How?’ (1973) He wrote a short booklet titled ‘English Abroad’ in which he insisted that no self-respecting and developed nation should be forced to work in the English language; Rather, there should be freedom to work in one’s mother tongue.
Controversy
Controversial comment on separation of Kashmir
Dr. Vaidik was severely criticized by the media and politicians of various ideologies after he made controversial statements about Kashmir in an interview during his visit to Pakistan in 2014 to attend the Track-II Conference on India-Pakistan Relations organized by the Regional Peace Institute. Was criticized. Reportedly, Dr. Vaidik said that it is right to make Kashmir a separate nation. However, he later said in an interview that he was talking about independence of Kashmir, not secession. He said,
I have always been in favor of freedom for the people of Kashmir…yes freedom and no separation. Kashmiri people should get freedom just like the people of Delhi.”
Awards, Honors, Achievements
- In 1972, Kabul University gave him a prize of Rs 10,000 to write a thesis on Afghanistan.
- In 1976, Ved Pratap Vaidik was awarded the Govindvallabh Pant Award by the Government of Uttar Pradesh for his book ‘A Comparative Study of Afghanistan’s Relations with the US and the Soviet Union’.
- For promoting Hindi language, he was awarded Purushottam Das Tandon Gold Medal by Uttar Pradesh Hindi Sahitya Sammelan in 1988.
- In 1989, he was honored with the title of ‘Best Kala Acharya’ for journalism by Madhuvan (Bhopal) Award.
- He was awarded a sum of twenty one thousand rupees by the Hindi Academy, Delhi for journalism in 1990.
- In 1990 he was awarded the Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Award.
- In 1992 he was honored with the ‘Lala Lajpat Rai Award’ by the Indian Cultural Society.
- Dr. Vaidik was awarded the ‘Ramdhari Singh Dinkar Shikhar Samman’ conferred by the then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao in 1992.
- He was honored with the World Hindi Conference Award in 2003.
- He was awarded the ‘Anuvrata Writer Award’ in 2021.
Ved Pratap honored with Vedic ‘Anuvrata Writer Award’
- In 2022, he was presented with the Newsmakers Achievers Award.
Dr. Vaidik received News Achievers Award
- During his school and college days, he received ‘Special Merit Certificate’ several times for scoring the highest marks in Political Science, Philosophy and Hindi.
Death
Ved Pratap Vaidik died of a heart attack on 14 March 2023. Reportedly, he fainted in the bathroom of his Gurugram residence after which he was taken to the hospital, where he was declared dead.
Facts/General Knowledge
- He was well-versed in various foreign and Indian languages, including Russian, Persian, German and Sanskrit.
- Dr. Vaidik was a traveling scholar-journalist and has visited more than 80 countries.
- In 1999, Ved Pratap Vedic became a member of the Indian delegation to the United Nations.
- Dr. Vaidik served as a member of several advisory committees of the Government of India.
- He was the head of the Indian Language Conference, an organization that campaigned against the compulsory teaching of the English language in educational institutions.
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn