Pak Journalist Row: BJP Brings Up Old Photo, Hamid Ansari Refutes Allegations

The Pakistani journalist had claimed that he had visited India five times on the invitation of Ansari.

Hamid Ansari refutes Nusrat Mirza's claims.

(Photo: The Quint)

Former Vice President Hamid Ansari on Friday, 15 July, reiterated that he never knew or invited Pakistani journalist Nusrat Mirza to any conference, after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), alleged Ansari's connection with the journalist.

Gaurav Bhatia, national spokesperson of BJP, at a press conference cited a photograph of the duo allegedly sharing stage during a conference on terrorism in India in 2009 and said, "People holding constitutional posts should act responsibly and should have not shared the stage with Nusrat Mirza."

However, a statement from the former VP's office said, "The former Vice President of India stands by his earlier statement that he never knew or invited Pakistan journalist Nusrat Mirza to any conference, including the 2010 conference mentioned by Nusrat Mirza or 2009 conference on terrorism or on any other occasion."

Earlier, on Wednesday, Ansari had stated that a "litany of falsehoods" had been unleashed upon him by a section of the media and the BJP.

Claims and Defences

The Pakistani journalist had claimed 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 Mirza in turn handed over to the ISI.

Mirza also claimed that the former VP had invited him to a conference on terrorism.

Ansari, however, 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 stated on Wednesday.

"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)," he added.

(With inputs from PTI.)