The BJP on Wednesday virtually accused former Vice President of India Hamid Ansari of “leaking” official information to a Pakistani journalist and working against the “interest of the country”.
In a no-holds-barred attack on Ansari, the BJP asked Ansari and the Congress to answer to the claims of a Pakistani scribe that he had visited India five times during the UPA rule and passed on sensitive information collected here to his country’s spy agency ISI.
The BJP sought to ask Congress president Sonia Gandhi and senior leader Rahul Gandhi to provide information as to how the Pakistani journalist Nusrat Mirza was invited five times and he was also allowed to speak on terrorism, something his country sponsors against India..
“Was our intelligence agencies aware of his five visits? Also whether the Pakistani journalist was feeding Pakistani ISI India’s information,” BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia asked.
Addressing a Press conference, Bhatia cited the Pakistani journalist’s purported comments that he had visited India on Ansari’s invitations and also met him. If Congress leaders Sonia and Rahul Gandhi besides the then vice president remain silent to the questions raised by the ruling party, it will amount to their admission to these “sins”, Bhatia told newspersons.
“People of India are giving you so much respect and you are betraying the country. Isn’t this treason? Sonia Gandhi, Rahul and Hamid Ansari should come out and reply to this,” Bhatia said at a press conference.
Mirza has claimed in an interview in Pakistan that Ansari had invited him five times to India during 2005-11 and shared extremely sensitive and classified information, the BJP leader said.
“He took the information from Ansari and it was used against India,” Bhatia alleged, adding that Mirza was also invited to speak at a seminar on the issue of terrorism.
“A person who is sharing information with the ISI is invited to come to India. Was this the Congress’ policy to end terrorism?
“This is the party’s poisonous mindset. Our government has resolved to root out terrorism. On the other hand, this is the Congress mindset,” he said.
Quoting Mirza’s claims, the BJP leader said he was given the visa to visit seven Indian cities against the practise of three cities.
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.
Asked if the BJP was seeking legal action on the issue, he said the party’s job is to raise issues and it is for the investigation agencies to probe.
The BJP leader also made charges against Ansari during his tenure as Indian Ambassador in Iran and alleged he was “working against the national security”.