GUWAHATI: Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary Pramod Mahajan on Monday said that liberalisation of the telecom sector had nothing to do with phone tapping.

Talking to the media, he rejected the argument that phone tapping cases had increased because of liberalisation of the telecom sector and demanded that the Centre amend the Indian Telegraph Act to ensure that the privacy of citizens were not invaded under the garb of "public interest."

Mr. Mahajan said the BJP would put pressure on the Centre both inside and outside Parliament to amend the Act in the budget session. He said telephone tapping without a real and substantial reason was unauthorised or illegal.

Asked to comment on Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh's claim that Mr. Mahajan's phone was being tapped, the BJP leader said that he would "hardly mind." He, however, said that the arrest of three people in connection with the tapping of Mr. Amar Singh's phone had shown that "there is a lot of strength in his [Amar Singh's] allegation. He is not talking nonsense. Already three persons have been arrested and half-a-dozen CDs of his phone recordings are with the police."

He said the telephones of militants and anti-national elements could be tapped in the national interest but it was illegal to tap those of political or business rivals.

He said the party's objective was to ``defeat and dislodge the corrupt and communal Congress'' in the Assembly polls in Assam. To achieve this, the BJP was ready to cooperate with any political party, he added. The position was firmed up after a two-day meeting of State leaders. Asked if this was an open invitation to the Asom Gana Parishad, Mr. Mahajan said it was for the other political parties to decide.

He said the BJP had not talked to the AGP or any other party so far.

On whether it would field candidates in all the 126 constituencies if the AGP did not cooperate, he said while deciding the poll strategy it had decided to adopt Savarkar's mantra: ``If you come with us, with you, if not, without you. If you oppose, in spite of your opposition we will defeat the Congress.''

The BJP had a pre-poll tie-up with the AGP in the 2001 Assembly polls.

Mr. Mahajan said the party would go to the people's court with a ``charge sheet'' against the Congress Government and contest the election with a vision document. The charge sheet and vision document would be made public during the four Parivartan Yatras (rally for change) to be taken out from February 5 to 19 in the State. These rallies would culminate at a public meeting here on February 19. BJP president Rajnath Singh and other party leaders would address it, he said. Prior to the February 19 rally, the party would organise an all-women rally and line up top women leaders of the party such as Sushma Swaraj, Vasundhara Raje and Smriti Irani.

To strengthen the party's base among the tribals, a BJP parliamentary delegation of Adivasi MPs would visit the State tea garden areas from January 15 to 20.

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