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Prez poll: NDA says phones tapped, to move EC
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 11
NDA spokesperson Sushma Swaraj today charged the UPA government with tapping of phones of key NDA leaders engaged in the presidential election campaign and said the alliance would ask the Election Commission (EC) to ensure that such “unhealthy practices” were not stopped.

Sushma said the NDA would be sending a written complaint to the MTNL chairman and the communications ministry knowing fully well that the reply would be a “flat denial”. The other leaders who were having the same complaints were BJP MP S S Ahluwalia and Janata Dal (United) MP Digvijay Singh. “We understand the need to tap the telephones of suspects in the national interest but not political opponents,” they said.

Sushma said, “Nine out of 10 calls often result in failed calls and if I call my home from my cellphone it goes to ‘police control room’. What is the connection between my residential telephone and the police?”

Asked if the Vice-President’s telephone, too, was being tapped, Sushma replied, “I have not heard any such complaint so far.”

She said the NDA would complain to the EC to get the whole thing examined and remove the hurdles posed by the government in the smooth conduct of the presidential election. “We can’t talk to each other and even if the connection is established, we hear some hissing or cracking noise,” she added.

Ahluwalia, who was also present, said the problem had become intense for the last eight to 10 days.

Apart from the allegation, Sushma also expressed hope that the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) would extend support to NDA-supported independent candidate Bhairon Singh Shekhawat as no formal decision had been taken by it to abstain from voting.

Charge baseless: Cong
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 11
The Congress today dismissed the allegations that the government is tapping the telephones of key BJP leaders involved in presidential election campaign, describing the charge as “baseless and useless.”

“Why should we tap their telephones...What is there to tap...Why should we waste our resources for it?” asked Union minister Renuka Chowdhary at the daily Congress press briefing.

Speaking in the same vein, parliamentary affairs minister and the UPA presidential nominee’s representative Priyaranjan Dasmunsi said BJP leader Sushma Swaraj ws levelling these charges out of sheer frustration. Dasmunsi debunked BJP leder Sushma Swaraj’s conspiracy theory, stating that does not view the Congress and BJP as enemies but ideological opponents.

Chowdhary maintained these allegations are nothing but a part of BJP’s tactics to malign the government since they know that their Presidential candidate faces certain defeat. Reiterating the carge taht vice-president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat is misusing his office to canvass support for himself, Chowdhary said calls were being made to MPs and other members of the electoral college from his official telephone.

Chowdhary, who is on the panel of party’s spokespersons for the Presidential poll, lambasted both the BJP for its smear campaign against Pratibha Patil and opposition leader L.K.Advani’s call for a conscience vote. Charging the BJP for lowering the level of debate, she said the oppossition ahd not only denigrated the office of the president but also that of the vice-president. Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, according to Chowdhary, has become a pawn in the BJP’s internal factional battles.