Former Vice President Hamid Ansari on Wednesday hit back at allegations levelled against him, calling the same a "litany of falsehood" unleashed on him by sections of the media and the official spokesperson of the BJP.
Issuing a statement in this regard, Ansari said he did not meet the Pakistani journalist who accused him of spying during his tenure as the ambassador to Iran. He 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.
Earlier in the day, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) asked Congress to clarify its policy on countering terror, citing media reports about journalist Nusrat Mirza’s claims on visiting India, including on the invitation of Ansari, the then vice president, and sharing sensitive and secret information.
BJP spokersperson Gaurav Bhatia said, "We should not forget that the (vice president)’s post is Constitutional and there are many issues that cannot be shared as they are linked to the nation’s security.”
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{{/usCountry}}Speaking about inviting Mirza at a conference on ‘terrorism’ in Delhi, Ansari said it is a known fact invitations to foreign dignitaries by the Vice President are made 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.
Clips of Mirza's interview in Pakistan have been doing the rounds on social media for the last few days in which he said that he attended a seminar on terrorism in India in which Ansari spoke. Mirza also claimed to have given secret and classified information to the Pakistani spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).