Hamid Ansari faces charge of 'inviting Pak spy': Know what journalist Nusrat Mirza claimed on helping ISI

A war of words erupted between the BJP and the Congress on Wednesday after the ruling party accused former vice president Hamid Ansari of inviting to India a Pakistani journalist who has claimed to have spied for the ISI – a charge Ansari dismissed as “litany of falsehood” and said that he never met or invited him. 

BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia cited purported claims of the Pakistani journalist, Nusrat Mirza, to allege that Ansari shared many "sensitive and highly classified" information with him. Bhatia also cited comments of a former operative of RAW, India's external spy agency, to allege that Ansari had harmed the country's interests when he was its envoy to Iran. 

BJP spokesperson Bhatia also slammed the Congress, which was in power between 2004-14, and asked its leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to come clean on the allegations. He claimed that Congress can go to any extent in its "petty and ugly politics and compromise" national interest.

Hitting back, the Congress strongly condemned the "insinuations and innuendos" by the BJP against party president Sonia Gandhi and the former vice president, saying it amounts to "character assassination of the worst form".

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said in a statement that the levels that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party colleagues will stoop to debase public debate is staggering.

According to Bhatia, Mirza came to India on five occasions and was given permission to visit seven cities, instead of the usual four visits allowed to a foreign visitor. 

“This [information] has not been shared once, but five times. He says this information was used against India by the ISI to weaken India. India has been leading the campaign against terrorism, and the Congress government invited a person who was given information used against our country and its people,” Bhatia said.

In an interview with journalist and political analyst Shakil Chaudhary, Mirza revealed that he passed on key information to Pakistan’s ISI after his many visits to India. He spoke about the process in detail and boasted about how he was able to collect the information.  

Recalling that he was invited by Ansari to visit India, Mirza said: “Usually when you apply for a visa to India, they only allow you to visit three places. However, at that time, Khurshid Kasuri (Pakistani politician and writer who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan between November 2002 till November 2007) was the foreign minister who helped me to get a visa for seven cities.”

"I have visited India five times. I have visited Delhi, Banglore, Chennai, Patna and Kolkata as well. In 2011, I also met with the Milli Gazette`s publisher Zafarul Islam Khan," Mirza said as quoted by ANI.

Mirza had also shed light on his 2010 visit to India in the interview during which he attended a seminar on terrorism. In his 2011 visit, he met Zafarul Islam Khan - the Milli Gazette`s publisher. After both these visits, he provided information about them to the ISI, as per his recent claims.

He said that though he handed down the information to the Pakistani leadership however no one seemed to pay any attention to it due to leadership issues.