Ansari rebuts the charge of inviting a Pakistani ‘spy’ journalist saying, never met him
Former Vice president Hamid Ansari has repudiated allegations that he had invited a Pakistani journalist who claims to have provided sensitive information on India to the Pakistani spy agency ISI.
He said a “litany of falsehood” has been unleashed against him in media and from a BJP spokesperson. Ansari in a statement also rejected the allegation by BJP saying that he compromised national interest as India’s ambassador to Iran when he was a RAW functionary.
The Pakistani journalist supposedly a spy for ISI Nusrat Mirza, is said to have visited India five times during the UPA rule and passed on sensitive information on India over to the Pakistani agency ISI.
Gaurav Bhatia, BJP spokesperson asked Ansari and the congress to come clean. Taking the opportunity to express his dismissal Ansari said, “I had inaugurated the conference on terrorism, on December 11, 2010... As is the normal practice, the list of invitees would have been drawn by the organisers.
I never invited him or met him (Mirza), It is a known fact that invitations to foreign dignitaries by the Vice president of India are on the advice of the government generally through the Ministry of External Affairs”.
The former vice president Ansari also said that his work as an ambassador to Iran was all times in government knowledge of the day. He also said he is refrained from the commitment to national security to comment on that matter further.
Ansari said, “The government of India has all the information and is the only authority to tell the truth. It is a matter of record that after my stint in Tehran, I was appointed India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York. My work there has been acknowledged at home and abroad”.
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