Close on the heels of the State’s Anti-Corruption Bureau filing First Information Report against its State president B.S. Yeddyurappa in connection with denotification of land, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday kicked up a fresh political row by petitioning Governor Vajubhai R. Vala on the alleged phone tapping of “political opponents” by the Siddaramaiah government.
A delegation of the BJP, led by Union Minister Ananth Kumar, met the Governor and alleged that retired IPS officer Kempaiah, who is the adviser to the Home Minister, and M.N. Reddi, DGP of the Anti-Corruption Bureau, had developed a modus operandi for monitoring telephone conversations of political opponents of the ruling Congress at the instructions of the State government.
This is not only in violation of rights of liberty and privacy, but also contrary to the constitutional and statutory provisions in force, they said in the petition. The BJP has demanded removal of Mr. Kempaiah from the adviser’s post and suspending of Mr. Reddi.
‘Wild allegations’
The Congress had described it as “another tactic of the BJP to divert the real issue”. Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee working president Dinesh Gundu Rao , told The Hindu : “Phone tapping cannot be done just by oral instructions. It has to be done as per rules and regulations. Even we can say the Centre is tapping all our phones. These are wild and baseless allegations that the BJP is levelling against us without any evidence.”
