Didn't invite or receive him: Hamid Ansari on row over Pak journalist's ISI claims

Former Vice President Hamid Ansari said all invites to foreign guests are sent through the Ministry of External Affairs on the advice of the government.

Former Vice President, Hamid Ansari, has refuted claims that he had invited to India a Pakistani journalist who has claimed to have spied for the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and said that a "litany of falsehood" had been unleashed against him in the media by a BJP spokesperson.

Earlier in the day, BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia asked Hamid Ansari and the Congress to clarify after Pakistani journalist Nusrat Mirza claimed that he had visited India five times during the UPA’s rule and passed on sensitive information to Pakistan's spy agency ISI.

“Lies are being spread against me. Invitations to foreign guests on behalf of the Vice President are given through the Ministry of External Affairs on the advice of the government. I have neither invited nor received,” Ansari said in a statement.

The former Vice President has also rejected the allegations by the BJP that he had compromised national interests as India's Ambassador to Iran, saying that his work as the Ambassador was, at all times, within the knowledge of the government of the day.

“The government of that time was aware of my work as the Ambassador of Iran. I am bound by a commitment to national security and avoid repercussions in such matters. The Government of India has all the information,” he said.

“After my stint in Tehran, I was appointed India's Permanent Representative to the UNSC and my work was recognized abroad and in the country.”

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