Former Vice President Hamid Ansari on Wednesday, 13 July, denied a Pakistani journalist's claim that he visited India five times during the rule of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) on the invitation of Ansari and passed on "sensitive" information to Pakistan's spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
What the Pakistani Journalist Claimed
The Pakistani journalist, named Nusrat Mirza, had said in an interview that he had visited India five times on the invitation of Ansari between 2005 and 2011, and that the former VP had passed on extremely sensitive and classified information to him, which the journalist in turn handed over to the ISI.
He also claimed that Ansari had invited him to a conference on terrorism.
What the BJP Said
The BJP had on Wednesday slammed Ansari over the claims made by Mirza, and asked the Congress to "come clean" on the matter.
"If Congress leaders Sonia and Rahul Gandhi besides the then vice president remain silent on the questions raised by the ruling party, it will amount to their admission to these sins," BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said while addressing the press.
Bhatia also accused the former VP of "betraying the country."
"Isn't this treason? Sonia Gandhi, Rahul and Hamid Ansari should come out and reply to this," he added.
The BJP spokesperson also alleged that while his party was resolved to end terrorism, the claims made by the Pakistani journalist, if true, represented the Congress' mindset.
He further alleged that a former operative of India's spy agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), had said that Ansari had allegedly harmed the national interest when he was India's envoy to Iran.
Other BJP leader also tore into Ansari over the controversy. The party's vice president Baijayant Jay Panda took to Twitter to say, "It is astonishing to read about the claims of a Pakistani journalist involving our former vice president Hamid Ansari. What is even more shocking is that he got a 2nd term during the UPA govt! Were the top posts compromised during that period? It raises some serious doubts."
'Never Met Him or Invited Him': Hamid Ansari
Ansari put out a statement on Wednesday saying that a "litany of falsehoods" had been unleashed upon him by a section of the media and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the Pakistani journalist's claims.
He also said that neither did he invite the journalist, nor did he meet him.
"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," the former VP said.
He further added, "I had inaugurated the Conference on Terrorism, on December 11, 2010, the 'International Conference of Jurists on International Terrorism and Human Rights'. As is the normal practice the list of invitees would have been drawn by the organisers. I never invited him or met him (the Pakistani journalist)."
Ansari also said that the Indian government and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) were cognisant of his appointments and conferences. "The Government of India has all the information and is the only authority to tell the truth," his statement read.
Congress' Retort to the BJP
Meanwhile, the Congress said the "lies" spread by the BJP were condemnable.
"The allegations leveled against the President of the Indian National Congress, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi and the former Vice President of India and eminent diplomat Mr. Hamid Ansari, by the spokesperson of the BJP, must be condemned in the strongest possible terms," the party said in a statement.
The Congress' communications incharge Jairam Ramesh also slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying, "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."
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