Hamid Ansari Refutes Allegations of Pak Journalist, Calls it “Litany of Falsehood”
NEW DELHI, July 13: The former Vice President Hamid Ansari on Wednesday called it a “litany of falsehood” unleashed on him in levelling allegations of him having shared some classified information with a Pakistani journalist who was spying for the Pakistan spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
Issuing a statement on the allegations levelled by a section of the media and the official spokesperson of the BJP, Ansari said he did not meet the Pakistani journalist who accused him of spying during his tenure as the ambassador to Iran.
The BJP on Wednesday took up “TV and social media” reports on the Pakistani journalist Nusrat Mirza’s claims that Ansari had invited him to India and that he had shared the information he collected during his visits with Pakistan’s ISI and demanded a response from Ansari and the Congress. Ansari refuted the reports and the BJP’s charges as a “litany of falsehood.”
Mirza, a Pakistani journalist, has claimed that former Vice President Ansari invited him to India five times between 2005-2011. “Mirza said during his India visit, he met him (Ansari) and shared information that is sensitive and secret. We should not forget that the post of Vice President is a Constitutional post and there are many issues that cannot be shared as they are linked to the nation’s security,” BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said at a press conference at the BJP headquarters.
The BJP spokesperson said both the Congress, which was in power then, and Ansari should tell the nation whether these instances occurred. Bhatia alleged that Ansari had invited a person from “a country that is known to support terrorism to speak about counter terrorism.”
Ansari in response said the Indian government and the ministry of external affairs (MEA) knew all his appointments and his conferences and should be able to look into the false nature of all these claims.
Speaking about inviting Nusrat Mirza at a conference on ‘terrorism’ in Delhi, Ansari said it is a known fact invitations to foreign dignitaries by the Vice President were made at the advice of the government, generally through the MEA. “As is the normal practice the list of invitees would have been drawn by the organisers. I never invited him or met him.”
Ansari further said that his work as ambassador to Iran was at all times within the knowledge of the government of the day, adding that it was after his stint in Tehran that he was appointed India’s permanent representative to the United Nations in New York.
Attacking the Congress, the BJP spokesman, however, said, “This is their policy to fight terrorism. India has been leading the campaign against terrorism and the Congress government invited a person who was given information that was used against our country and its people,” he added. “This (information) has not been shared once, but five times. He says this information was used against India by the ISI to weaken India,” Bhatia alleged.
Bhatia also sought answers from the former Vice President. “Is it true that you invited him and violated the rule that no government or institution would work against the interests or hurt the security of the nation? Did you invite this person and share secret and sensitive matters, officially or unofficially?” Bhatia asked. He said that if former Vice President Ansari had done so, he should “share it with the current dispensation to show that you are committed to this nation.” Bhatia also asked if Ansari had been cautioned by intelligence agencies that the journalist was sharing his information with the ISI.
Taking a swipe at Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, Bhatia said the opposition party had a history of standing “for the family not for the nation.” He also asked Ansari if he had taken instructions from the Gandhis to invite the journalist. Media reports said Mirza made the claims in a recent interaction with fellow journalist and YouTuber Shakil Chaudhary.
Dismissing the allegations, Ansari said, “I am bound by the commitment to national security in such matters and refrain from commenting on them. 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,” he said.
(Manas Dasgupta)
