Former Pak FM Khurshid Kasuri rejects PM Modi’s Gujarat polls conspiracy charge, says accusation has ‘no basis’

Former Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, who was at the centre of a controversy after Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleged that he was involved in a conspiracy to influence Gujarat Assembly elections, has said that the accusation has “no basis.”

Reacting to Modi’s claim that Pakistan was interfering in the Gujarat polls, Kasuri told a Pakistani TV channel that “it is a strange story with no basis​. (ajeebo-ghareeb kahaani jiska koi sar pair nahin hai.”

In an interview to Samaa TV, Kasuri acknowledged that he attended a dinner hosted by suspended Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar on December 6 where former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former Vice President Hamid Ansari, former Army chief General Deepak Kapoor, several retired diplomats, journalists and the Pakistani High Commissioner were present.

He claimed that “even the name of Gujarat” was not uttered by any of the persons present and people only discussed India-Pakistan relations and ways to improve them.

“Where top former foreign ministry officials are present, what will they discuss about the Gujarat elections with me? I can’t understand this, even the name of Gujarat was not taken there,” he was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times.

“This is very perplexing and saddening,” he …read more