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‘Never met them’: Hamid Ansari refutes allegations of inviting ‘spy’ Pakistani journalist India News – Times of India

July 13, 2022
Sezarr

New Delhi: Former Vice President Hamid Ansari has denied allegations that he had invited a Pakistani journalist who he claims provided sensitive information collected in India to the Pakistani spy agency ISI.
The BJP said Mirza claimed in an interview in Pakistan that Ansari had invited him to India five times during 2005-11 and shared highly sensitive and confidential information.
Responding to the BJP’s allegations, Ansari denied inviting or meeting journalist Nusrat Mirza and termed her “an effigy of lies”.
Earlier, BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia had accused Ansari of sedition, citing the claims of the journalist.

Bhatia said, “People of India are giving you so much respect and you are betraying the country. Is this not sedition? Sonia Gandhi, Rahul and Hamid Ansari should come out and answer this.”
“He took information from Ansari and it was used against India,” Bhatia alleged. He said that Mirza was also invited to speak at a seminar on the issue of terrorism.
In his rebuttal, Ansari said, “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.”
In a statement, he also denied inviting or meeting Mirza.

Bhatia also cited comments by a former operative of India’s external spy agency RAW, alleging that Ansari had harmed the country’s interests as an envoy to Iran.
The former vice president, in his reply, said that his work as ambassador to Iran was at all times within the knowledge of the government of the time.
“The Government of India has all the information and the sole authority to tell the truth. It is a matter of record that after my tenure in Tehran, I was appointed as the Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations in New York. There my job is for the country and have been accepted abroad,” Ansari said.
The Congress reacted sharply to the BJP’s allegations about Ansari, calling it an attempt to “murder character”.
Party spokesperson Jairam Ramesh said, “The allegations and statements by a BJP spokesperson against Sonia Gandhi, Congress President and former Vice President of India Hamid Ansari should be condemned in the strongest possible language.”
(with PTI inputs)