BJP attacks government over phone-tapping

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday accused the government of giving "limited denials" on the telephone tapping allegations and warned that allowing lobbyists to influence policies like telecom spectrum would be "hugely frightening" for Parliamentary democracy.

In a blistering attack on the government, Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley asked whether 'public emergency' or 'public safety' was under threat to bug the telephones of four senior political leaders including Sharad Pawar, Prakash Karat and Nitish Kumar.

It is only in the interest of 'public emergency' or 'public safety' that the government was vested with powers to tap telephones. "There is no absolute power with the government" under the Indian Telegraphic Act, Jaitley, a well-known lawyer, argued.

Initiating a discussion in the Rajya Sabha on the allegations of phone tapping, Jaitley said Home Minister P Chidambaram's statement stated that the government did not authorise the bugging but it failed to say that the tapping did not take place.

Referring to the denial by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) that it did not tap phones of influential businessmen and politicians, the BJP leader said the CBDT denial did not specifically rule out tapping of the individual corporate lobbyist and PR person named in the media.

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"Both the statements (denials) were economical in choice of words....they made limited denials and failed to deny the crux of the allegations," he said.

Parliament was rocked on Wednesday over reports that the tax authorities had tapped conversations of well-known lobbyist running a clutch of PR agencies. These conversations conveyed an impression that "structured lobbyists" were working even on allocations of Cabinet portfolios.

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He said if these reports about lobbyists influencing spectrum allocations are true, then "it is hugely frightening".

It is not an adversarial issue between political parties but it "lowers Parliamentary democracy".

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Jaitley said the mobile technology available with the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) used by the intelligence agencies "dismantles" the Constitutional guarantee of privacy to an individual.

Sticking to the BJP demand for a Parliamentary probe into the allegations, he said in recent times, the investigative and intelligence arms of the government were "repeatedly" and "grossly" misused. Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was the most abused institution.

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Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) did a "white wash" of the cases relating to UPA and its allies, vindictive towards to UPA opponents and holds a Damocle's sword on those who are needed for its number games in Parliament.