The regional Peace Institute, with Mani Shankar Aiyar on its board, invited Congress leaders and media personalities including Vaidik.

The Congress party has decided to take the fight against journalist Ved Pratap Vaidik's meeting with 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed right to the PMO, alleging that Narendra Modi's office was directly involved with planning the meeting and offering Vaidik's proximity with the Sangh parivar as evidence.

But interestingly, not only were senior Congress leaders part of the trip that Vaidik joined, along with some other media personalities, but the cross-border visit was itself organised by an organisation that features senior Congressman Mani Shankar Aiyar on its board of governors.

A report in The Indian Express says Former Union minister Salman Khurshid was on the trip too and had travelled to Pakistan "at the invitation of the Regional Peace Institute, Islamabad, for an Indo-Pak bilateral dialogue, a Track 2 intiative".

Khurshid was quoted in the report as saying their trip lasted just three days and they had no other itinerary apart from the conference, while Vaidik chose to stay back for another two weeks. The meetng with Saeed took place long after the others on the tour returned to India, Khurshid said.

That apparent contradiction -- that Congress leaders were part of Vaidik's trip -- didn't appear to deter the Congress party from threatening to raise the issue in Parliament.

Party spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed pointed out that three of Vaidik’s former colleagues in the Vivekananda International Foundation were now members of the PMO, insinuating that Vaidik enjoyed some proximity to the PMO too.

"Vaidik belonged to the same organisation Vivekananda International Foundation, whose three members Nripendra Misra, PK Mishra and Ajit Doval are working for the Modi government as Principal Secretary, Additional Principal Secretary in PMO and as National Security Adviser,” Ahmed said, according to the report.

“Now the fourth person, who also worked in the Foundation, Vaidik,… has met the most wanted terrorist in India, who is an accused in Mumbai terror strikes. A serious question arises. Did he go to meet Hafiz Saeed at the instruction of the Prime Minister? The Prime Minister and the government must come clean on it,” he said.

Ahmed may have skipped mentioning that there were Congressmen on the trip too. Apparently, he also forgot that Congress leader Aiyar had himself appeared on a talk show with the JuD chief, a move for which he was rapped by his party bosses.

An India Today report points out that following that talk show, telecast in February 2012, "Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi had said propriety requires that such situations should be avoided."

"One should avoid public interaction with a man who is involved in actions against humanity and India," Singhvi had said.

In Rajya Sabha, meanwhile, Leader of the House and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that as far as India was concerned, Saeed was a terrorist and indeed involved in terrorism against India.

Government has nothing to do with "directly, indirectly or even remotely" with any journalist meeting Saeed, he said, adding "government has not sanctioned permission to anyone for meeting him (Saeed).

Rejecting Jaitely's remarks, the Congress spokesperson said that "merely making statements like this" won't do.