Litany of lies: Former Vice President Hamid Ansari on BJP charge of 'inviting Pak spy'

New Delhi, July 13

Former Vice President Hamid Ansari today refuted allegations by the BJP that he, while in office, had invited a Pakistani journalist, who spied for the ISI.

The Congress condemned the allegations in the “strongest terms” and said these reflected a “sickness of mind”.

Dignitaries invited on govt’s advice

The Vice President invites foreign dignitaries on the advice of the government… The list of invitees for the 2010 conference on trerrorism was drawn by the organisers. —Hamid Ansari, Former vice president

“A litany of lies has been unleashed in sections of the media and by a BJP spokesperson,” Ansari said in a statement after BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia, in a press conference, asked Ansari and the Congress to explain the claims of Pakistani journalist Nusrat Mirza that he had visited India five times during the UPA regime and passed on sensitive information gathered from here to the ISI.

Bhatia flagged Mirza’s comments that “he had visited India on Ansari’s invitations and also met him”.

Ansari trashed the BJP’s charges that he had, as India’s ambassador to Iran, “compromised the national interest”.

“It is a known fact the Vice President of India invites foreign dignitaries on the advice of the government. I had inaugurated the ‘International Conference of Jurists on International Terrorism and Human Rights’ on December 11, 2010. As is the normal practice, the list of invitees was drawn by the organisers. I never invited him (Mirza) or met him,” said Ansari, who was the VP from 2007 to 2017.

He noted that his work as the ambassador to Iran was within the knowledge of the government of the day and added he was bound by the commitment to national security to make any further comment on the matter.

Jairam Ramesh, AICC general secretary (communication), said: “The facts regarding the conference on terrorism are already in the public domain. The insinuations and innuendos of the BJP spokesperson are character assassination of the worst form.” “It reflects sickness of mind and lack of any form of integrity whatsoever,” he added.