Former Vice President of India, Hamid Ansari had got angry at the organizers when they didn’t pay heed to his request to invite the Pakistani journalist, in the eye of a storm, Nusrat Mirza, in a conference.
Republic TV got hold of Dr Adish Aggarwala, chairman of the All India Bar Association, who was the organiser of The International Conference of Jurists on International Terrorism and Human Rights where Ansari was the chief guest, who said that an official working in the VP secretariat did request him to invite Mirza.
As things turned out, Mirza, the self-proclaimed Pakistani spy, could never attend the conference as Aggarwala had flatly refused the request from the VP secretariat to invite him.
Nusrat Mirza has claimed in an interview that he gathered secret information on India during his visits to the country between 2005-2011 and gave it to Pakistan’s ISI. Further, he claimed to have been invited by Ansari.
Said Aggarwala: “He (Hamid Ansari) accepted our request to be our Chief Guest in our International Conference on Jurists on International Terrorism and Human Rights which was scheduled for 11th and 12th of December 2010. After his acceptance, Ashok Dewan who was director in Vice President secretariat requested me to invite Nusrat Mirza of Pakistan to attend this conference. Actually, I didn’t invite him because we think that Pakistan promotes terrorism. We hadn’t invited judges and lawyers from Pakistan.”
He added, “On the 10th of December, he (Ashok Dewan) told me that the Vice President will remain only for 20 minutes and not one hour as he is annoyed as we have not invited Mr. Mirza. So, I told him that if he can’t stay for one hour, kindly cancel his programme. We withdraw our invitation. But we were told that his speech is ready and it has been given to the media. We can’t cancel now. He came for 20 minutes. We welcomed him as he was our Vice President. And he left after 20 minutes.”
In a statement issued earlier, former VP Hamid Ansari stressed, “It is a known fact that invitations 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”.
Congress also condemned the insinuations and innuendos against Sonia Gandhi and Ansari which however in light of recent disclosures is turning out to be a major controversy.
