What About PM Modi And Snoopgate: AAP's Ashutosh To Women's Rights Chief

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi must be investigated by the country's top women's rights body for allegedly ordering the illegal surveillance of a young architect in Gujarat when he was the Chief Minister, said Ashutosh, a senior leader of the Aam Aadmi Party or AAP today.

Ashutosh presented his demand to Lalitha Kumaramangalam, the chief of the National Commission for Women, who had summoned him this morning to explain a column he wrote last week for ndtv.com about a sex scandal in the Delhi government.

"He has given sort of a complaint about things that had happened earlier under the chief of the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We have acknowledged the letter and we have sent it to our complaints and investigation cell. We will give our reply after processing it," said Ms Kumaramangalam to news agency ANI while stressing that Ashutosh's explanation about his ndtv.com column was not satisfactory.

Ashutosh, a former editor who uses just one name, said that just as he has been asked to explain his column for alleged misogyny, the PM and his top aide and BJP chief Amit Shah, must be asked to present their account of the scandal referred to as "Snoopgate".

Before the national election, opposition parties said audio tapes presented by two news websites revealed Mr Shah, as Home Minister, ordering the tailing of a women architect on the orders of a "saheb" which they claimed was a reference to Mr Modi. The BJP refuted the allegations and the young woman's father said he had sought the Gujarat government's help in monitoring his daughter because he was worried about her safety.

The chief of the National commission for Women has said that in his column for ndtv.com, Ashutosh objectified women and defended, without knowing all the facts, Sandeep Kumar, who till last week was a minister in the Delhi government headed by Arvind Kejriwal. Ashutosh's column was written before a woman who is in a sex video with Mr Kumar accused him of rape. He was arrested over the weekend. Ashutosh said in the blog that the personal and sexual lives of politicians have not been traditionally treated as a matter of public concern in India.

Mr Kumar was sacked, AAP emphasised, "within 30 minutes" of Mr Kejriwal receiving a copy of the sex video.