BJP slams ex-VP Ansari over Pak journalist's ISI spy claims

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday asked former vice president Hamid Ansari and the Congress to come clean on the claims of a Pakistani journalist that he had visited India five times during United Progressive Alliance rule and passed on sensitive information collected here to his country's spy agency ISI.

BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia cited Pakistani journalist Nusrat Mirza'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 reporters.

No immediate comment was available from either the Congress or Ansari.

"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.

Citing Mirza's claims, the BJP leader said he was given the visa to visit seven Indian cities against the practise of three cities.