In an interview with Dainik Bhaskar, Pakistani journalist Nusrat Mirza who had claimed he had spied on India and met former Vice President Hamid Ansari five times took a U-turn from his statement. In his previous interview, he had claimed to have spied on India and handed over information to Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI.
Mirza’s statements had unleashed a political storm in the country. BJP Spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia accused Ansari of betraying India in a press conference.
Both Hamid Ansari and Congress claimed that Mirza lied in his interview. Ansari issued a statement refuting the claims. In this process, Ansari threw the then-UPA government under the bus. On the other hand, Congress also claimed Mirza never attended the meeting where he had claimed to have met Ansari. There was another twist when the organizers of the said event issued a statement and clarified how Ansari was unhappy with them as they refused to invite Mirza to the conference.
Mirza, who is at the centre of the controversy, has now taken a u-turn during an interview with Dainik Bhaskar. He claimed he never met Ansari at a personal level, and the documents he talked about during his interview had nothing to do with India. He claimed the documents were related to the allegations raised by a former Soviet spy during a seminar on terrorism in 2010.
Earlier he had claimed that he had met Ansari multiple times.
When Bhaskar’s reporter asked him his views on the controversy his statements sparked in India, he said there was nothing controversial in what he had said. “I am an 80-years-old journalist, and I was made a spy. My life is like an open book. They have a problem with Hamid Ansari, and I was pulled into the controversy unnecessarily.”
He claimed everyone knew he was very vocal, and no agency would allow him to go anywhere and collect information.
On his trips to India, he claimed to have never met Hamid Ansari on a personal level. He said, “I attended a seminar where Ansari was the chief guest. I was a speaker at that event. You can check the old videos of the event to confirm. I praised Atal Ji. There were Hindus and Sikhs in the seminar. Pakistan’s ambassador was also there. I had talked about bringing two countries together.”
He further added following that seminar, another similar seminar was held in Pakistan and journalists from India were invited. He said, “Now, if there is a dispute about the seminar in India, what can I do? This does not happen with us here [in Pakistan]. The way your anchors talk to us, no one behaves with us in a similar way here. I am an anchor myself. For me, this matter is over.”
When asked if he did not meet Ansari, who did he meet, Mirza said, “I can assure you that I did not meet Hamid Ansari on a personal level. However, I did meet Manmohan Singh [then-Prime Minister of India] during that visit. He also inquired about my health. There was no conversation with Ansari, nor did he talk to me about my well-being. He went straight to the stage. At that time, I felt bad about it.”
‘Hamid Ansari is being targeted because he is a Muslim’
During the interview, Mirza claimed Hamid Ansari was being targeted because he is a Muslim and a Congress leader. He said, “BJP is targeting him. It is part of the power politics in India. They are creating an unnecessary dispute. You should see what he said in the seminar. He had said neighbours cannot be changed.”
Speaking about the documents he talked about in his previous interview, Mirza said, “The documents were not related to India but about a Russian woman who accused Pakistan of breaking an agreement. She was an old agent of the KGB (Intelligence Agency of the Soviet Union). I had told her she was wrong.” He further added when he came back and handed over the documents, he was told the allegations were correct, and the US was behind it. India had no links to whatever was there in those documents.
In a message to the people of India, he said, “We cannot change the neighbours. We must live peacefully. Politics is a dirty game. Aurangzeb got his own brother killed. The general public should not get involved in politics. If someone calls me an ISI agent, it will not make a difference to me. It is a different matter that I am just a journalist.”
Nusrat Mirza’s statements that caused controversy in India
On July 10, during an interview, Pakistani journalist Nusrat Mirza made some sensational statements. During his interview, he mentioned that he used his political connections with the former Foreign Minister of Pakistan Khurshid Kasuri and got an extended Visa for India. During the current interview, he claimed Kasuri was not Foreign Minister when he attended the seminar in India. Though it is true in the previous interview, he never mentioned for which trip he got support from Kasuri.
It is notable that Kasuri was Foreign Minister from 2002 to 2007. According to Mirza, he had visited India in 2005 and 2006 when Kasuri was in office. That means Mirza could have gotten support from him while he was in office to get an extended Visa for India.
Mirza has stated that he had travelled to many cities and had collected information about India to hand over to the ISI.
He then claimed to have met Hamid Ansari during a seminar on terrorism. This statement caused a lot of controversy in India. Hamid Ansari came forward and issued a statement where he claimed to never have met Mirza. “The former vice president of India stands by his earlier statement that he never knew or invited the Pakistan journalist Nusrat Mirza to any conference, including the 2010 conference mentioned by Nusrat Mirza or the 2009 conference on terrorism or on any other occasion,” the statement read.
Earlier, he had mentioned an event that he had attended at Vigyan Bhawan in December 2010. However, the President of the International Council of Jurists and the Chairman of the All India Bar Association, Dr Adish Aggarwala, who was the organizer of the event ‘International Conference of Jurists on International Terrorism and Human Rights, issued a statement and rubbished Ansari’s claims. He also mentioned that a request was forwarded to him from VP’s office to invite Mirza, but he refused to do so, after which Ansari got angry and came only for 20 minutes instead of an hour that Ansari had previously promised.
