Former Vice President Hamid Ansari on Wednesday denied allegations that he had invited a Pakistani journalist to India who claimed to be spying for the ISI. Ansari said he has been “accused of lying” that he invited Pakistani journalist Nusrat Mirza and met her at a conference on terrorism in New Delhi.
Former Vice President Hamid Ansari said, “I was ‘prosecuted of lies’ by sections of the media and the official spokesperson of the BJP.”
In a statement, Ansari also rubbished allegations made by the BJP, citing comments by a former RAW functionary, that he had compromised national interests as India’s ambassador to Iran.
Ansari said falsehoods were being spread that “as ambassador to Iran, I had betrayed the national interest, for which allegations were made by a former official of a government agency.”
He said in a statement that it is a known fact that invitations to foreign dignitaries by the Vice President of India are usually on the advice of the government through the Ministry of External Affairs.
“I had inaugurated the Conference on Terrorism on December 11, 2010, the ‘International Conference of Jurists on Terrorism and Human Rights’. As is the usual practice, the list of invitees would have been prepared by the organisers. I never invited them. Or meet her,” he said.
“My work as Ambassador to Iran was at all times within the knowledge of the government of that time. 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 That is the only right to speak the truth. It is a matter of record that after my stint in Tehran, I was appointed as the Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations in New York. My work has been acknowledged at home and abroad,” the former Vice President he said .
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