New Delhi:
The Opposition is stepping up the pressure on the government over Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's suspicion that his office was bugged. After Home Minister P Chidambaram told NDTV exclusively that he did not know about the bugging of Mr Mukherjee's office because it was a 'non-event', the BJP, today, demanded that Pranab Mukherjee's complaint letter to the Prime Minister be released.
BJP Spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad, slamming the Home Minister's 'non-event' remarks, called it the biggest circus of independent India.
He also alleged that "when it came to crunch, the Finance Minister did not trust the Home Minister...the Finance Minister instead engaged a private agency."
"The Home Minister of India under whom the Information Bureau falls, he does not know that the inquiry was taking place and Pranab Mukherjee does not trust the Information Bureau, and directly writes to the Prime Minister...and Chidambaram says that this is not a big issue," he said.
Mr Chidambaram might have called it a 'non-event', but for the Opposition, it is a sign of an adrift government, with a lack of trust at the very top.
"Pranab Mukherjee is the most senior minster in the Manmohan Singh government, despite that he has not taken the Home Minister into confidence. He has directly written to the Prime Minister regarding the bugging of his office. It also shows that the Congress led UPA-2 lacks collective functioning, lack of cohesiveness, rudderless and Prime Minister should explain why these things are happening," said CPI leader D Raja.
According to an investigation done by The Indian Express, on September 7 last year, the Finance Minister wrote to the Prime Minister, and not the Home Ministry's Intelligence Bureau, asking him to order a "secret inquiry" into what he called a "serious breach of security" in his office - the presence of "planted adhesives" in 16 key locations that suggested a possible surveillance attempt.
Already in a fire-fighting mode over numerous scams and the controversy over the Lokpal Bill, for the beleaguered UPA government this embarrassing disclosure couldn't have come at a worse time. The main Opposition party has been quick to label the episode as India's 'watergate', and is now demanding answers.
BJP Spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad, slamming the Home Minister's 'non-event' remarks, called it the biggest circus of independent India.
He also alleged that "when it came to crunch, the Finance Minister did not trust the Home Minister...the Finance Minister instead engaged a private agency."
"The Home Minister of India under whom the Information Bureau falls, he does not know that the inquiry was taking place and Pranab Mukherjee does not trust the Information Bureau, and directly writes to the Prime Minister...and Chidambaram says that this is not a big issue," he said.
Mr Chidambaram might have called it a 'non-event', but for the Opposition, it is a sign of an adrift government, with a lack of trust at the very top.
"Pranab Mukherjee is the most senior minster in the Manmohan Singh government, despite that he has not taken the Home Minister into confidence. He has directly written to the Prime Minister regarding the bugging of his office. It also shows that the Congress led UPA-2 lacks collective functioning, lack of cohesiveness, rudderless and Prime Minister should explain why these things are happening," said CPI leader D Raja.
According to an investigation done by The Indian Express, on September 7 last year, the Finance Minister wrote to the Prime Minister, and not the Home Ministry's Intelligence Bureau, asking him to order a "secret inquiry" into what he called a "serious breach of security" in his office - the presence of "planted adhesives" in 16 key locations that suggested a possible surveillance attempt.
Already in a fire-fighting mode over numerous scams and the controversy over the Lokpal Bill, for the beleaguered UPA government this embarrassing disclosure couldn't have come at a worse time. The main Opposition party has been quick to label the episode as India's 'watergate', and is now demanding answers.
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