Reacting to the allegations made by the Bharatiya Janata Party against him on Tuesday, Former Vice President Hamid Ansari on Wednesday hit back at the saffron party and called the allegations a “litany of falsehood” unleashed on him by sections of the media and the official spokesperson of the BJP.
In a statement issued today, referring to allegations that he, as Vice-President of India, had invited the Pakistani journalist, Nusrat Mirza, to conference in New Delhi on ‘Terrorism’, Mr Ansari said: “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.”
“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,” Mr Ansari added.
Responding to allegation that he betrayed the national interest while being an ambassador to Iran, Mr Ansari said: “My work as Ambassador to Iran was at all times within the knowledge of the Government of the day. I am bound by the commitment to national security in such matters and refrain from commenting on them. The Government of India has all the information and is the only authority to tell the truth. It is a matter of record that after my stint in Tehran I was appointed India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York. My work there has been acknowledged at home and abroad.”
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