Hamid Ansari, the former vice president of India, denied on Wednesday that he had brought a Pakistani journalist to India who claimed to have spied for the ISI. He also alleged that a BJP spokesperson had released a “litany of untruth” against him.
In a statement, he also denied the BJP’s charge that he had compromised national interest while serving as India’s ambassador to Iran, which was based on remarks made by a former RAW official.
At a media briefing earlier in the day, BJP spokesman Gaurav Bhatia demanded Ansari and the Congress to be transparent about Pakistani reporter Nusrat Mirza’s allegations that he had visited India 5 times during the UPA rule and given sensitive information gathered here to his country’s spy agency ISI.
Bhatia referenced Mirza’s alleged remarks that Ansari had invited him to visit India, and that he’d already seen Ansari, but the former vice president denied the allegations.
In his refute, Ansari said, “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. I had inaugurated the Conference on Terrorism, on December 11, 2010, the ‘International Conference of Jurists on International Terrorism and Human Rights’. As is the normal practice, the list of invitees would have been drawn by the organisers. I never invited him or met him,” remarked Ansari.
The former vice president claimed that the current administration was always aware of his work as Iran’s envoy.
He stated that he will avoid commenting on such topics since he is constrained by the commitment to national security.
“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,” .
– Hamad Ansari
Image credits: PTI
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