BJP demands CBI probe over Congress ‘phone tapping’ allegations

A day after the Special Operation Group (SOG) of Rajasthan Police registered criminal cases over purported audio clips of BJP leaders plotting to topple the Ashok Gehlot government, the BJP on Saturday sought a CBI probe into the “phone tapping” of all the political leaders in the state.

On Friday, the state’s ruling party released the audio tapes of a purported telephonic conversation between a dissident Congress MLA and Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. Shekhawat denied the charges, saying that the voice or the diction in the audio did not belong to him.
Asked whether Sanjay Jain, whose voice was allegedly heard in the purported audio clips, is a member of the BJP, Patra said there was no need to respond to “manufactured clips and fiction.”

Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala had alleged that Jain is a BJP leader was also involved in the plot. Patra pointed out that the party had sought an investigation to prove if such a person existed.

Terming the political developments in Rajasthan as a “the political drama of the Congress and a cocktail of conspiracy, concocted stories, manufactured lies and illegalities”, Patra asked the Grand Old Party whether the state government had adopted illegal and unconstitutional methods to save its government in the state.
“Any person who may belong to any party wants to know whether their phones are tapped? We have come to know that unconstitutional methods are in use in the state. Is it not an Emergency situation in the state?” he said.

The BJP leader added that “the reality is that since the Congress came into power, there has been a dual on the street between Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot on who would be the Chief Minister.” He pointed out citing Gehlot’s remarks that the chief minister and deputy chief minister had not been in talking terms for the last 18 months.

“The sin was theirs… the conspiracy existed within the Congress, but the allegations were against the BJP. They came out with audio clips, which were manufactured, to accuse the BJP of conspiracies,” Patra said.

The BJP wanted to know whether the Rajasthan government had conducted the “phone tapping” as the Congress party has claimed. “Is it not a sensitive issues? A legal issue? Assuming that the phones were tapped, did you follow the standard operative procedures by the government. Not just BJP, but the entire public want to know whether their privacy was compromised?” he said.

Patra said according to the law, phones can be tapped only by the due process of the law and by approved standard safeguards and procedures by competent authorities.

“There should be a CBI probe into this saga of illegalities and concocted lies,” he said.

“Our morality is clear… No fictional stories can shake us,” Patra said, adding that the Rajasthan Chief Minister should answer the questions asked by the saffron party.

The BJP also asked whether the SOPs and the social distancing norms of Covid 19 were followed by the lawmakers of Congress who are currently staying in a Jaipur resort.