Ex-Vice President Hamid Ansari denies allegations that he invited or met Pak journo suspected of ISI links

Former Vice President of India Hamid Ansari on Wednesday denied accusations by a BJP spokesperson that he invited a Pakistani journalist suspected of links with Pakistan's spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to India.

In a statement, Ansari denied meeting or inviting Pakistani journalist Nusrat Mirza and said that "a litany of falsehood has been unleashed on me".

He also rejected allegations made by the BJP, citing comments of a former official of Research and Analysis Wing, that he compromised national interest as India's Ambassador to Iran.

"Yesterday and today a litany of falsehood has been unleashed on me personally in sections of the media and by the official spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party: that as Vice President of India I had invited the Pakistani journalist, Nusrat Mirza. That I had met him in a conference in New Delhi on 'terrorism', and that while as Ambassador to Iran, I had betrayed national interest in a matter for which allegations have been made by a former official of a government agency," Ansari said.

"It is a known fact that invitation to foreign dignitaries by the Vice President of India are on the advice of the government generally through the Ministry of External Affairs. I had inaugurated the conference on terrorism on December 11, 2010...As is the normal practice the list of invitees would have been drawn by the organisers. I never invited him or met him," he added.

"My work as Ambassador to Iran was at all times within the knowledge of the government of the day..." Ansari said in the statement.

The statement was tweeted by Gurdeep Singh Sappal, ex-CEO and Editor, Rajya Sabha TV, who served as OSD to Ansari during the latter's tenure as Vice President.

On Wednesday, BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia asked Ansari and the Congress to respond to Mirza’s claims that he visited India five times during the Congress-led UPA govt and passed on sensitive information collected in India to Pakistan's ISI.

“Insinuations and innuendos by a spokesperson of the BJP against Smt. Sonia Gandhi, President of the Indian National Congress and Shri Hamid Ansari, former Vice-President of India, are to be condemned in the strongest possible language. The facts regarding the International Conference of Jurists on International Terrorism and Human Rights held on December 11, 2010 in New Delhi are already in the public domain. The insinuations and innuendos of the spokesperson of the BJP are character assassination of the worst form,” former Union minister and AICC general secretary in charge of communication Jairam Ramesh said in a statement on Wednesday.

“The levels that the Prime Minister and his party colleagues will stoop to debase public debate and spread their patented brand of lies is staggering. It reflects sickness of mind and lack of any form of integrity whatsoever,” Ramesh added.