BJP targets ex-VP Hamid Ansari, claims he had links with 'ISI spy'
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday once again targeted former Vice President Hamid Ansari over his alleged links with a Pakistani journalist who passed on sensitive information to espionage agency Inter-Services Intelligence. However, Ansari has denied the charges.
FollowThe Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday once again targeted former Vice President Hamid Ansari over his alleged links with a Pakistani journalist who passed on sensitive information to espionage agency Inter-Services Intelligence. However, Ansari has denied the charges.
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The BJP cited a photograph of Ansari and Pakistani journalist Nusrat Mirza purportedly sharing the stage during a conference on terrorism in 2009 in India.
Since the last few days, clips have been doing the rounds on social media showing Mirza's interview in Pakistan. He stated that he attended a seminar on terrorism in India in which Ansari took part. He also claimed to have visited India five times during the United Progressive Alliance rule and passed on classified information to the ISI.
Mirza allegedly said that he had visited India on Ansari's invitation and also met him. Ansari, however, has dismissed the claim as a "litany of falsehood".
In a statement, the former Vice President reiterated that he never knew or invited Pakistan journalist Nusrat Mirza to any conference, including the 2009 conference on terrorism or the 2010 conference mentioned by the latter Nusrat Mirza.
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Countering the BJP's claim of inviting Mirza, Ansari had earlier said that it was a known fact that invitations to foreign dignitaries by the Vice-President of India are based on the advice of the Ministry of External Affairs.
On Friday, BJP's national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia waved a photograph of Ansari in front of the media that showed him sharing a stage with Mirza at a conference on terrorism in 2009.
Protocol dictates that before a programme of someone holding a constitutional post, his office gathers information about those involved in the event. That being said, would it be incorrect to believe that Congress wanted a person from Pakistan to enter India and hurt its integrity, he asked.
