Congress raises Rahul Gandhi 'snooping' issue in Parliament

Govt dismisses allegation of spying, says security exercise started in 1987

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government on Monday held firm its stand in both the Houses of Parliament that the Delhi Police seeking information on Special Protection Group (SPG) protectee and Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi was a “routine security exercise”, and not “snooping” and “political espionage” as the opposition Congress was making it out to be. A dissatisfied Congress staged a walkout from the Rajya Sabha when Leader of the House and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley dismissively stated, “You are making a mountain of not even a molehill”.

The Congress, however,  found support from other opposition parties like the Janata Dal (United) and the Samajwadi Party, which urged the government to come clean on the increasing incidence of phone tapping and surveillance of political leaders, as it was an invasion of individual privacy.

Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge raked up the issue in the Lok Sabha.

Denying the Congress’ claims, Jaitley reiterated in both the Houses that Rahul Gandhi was not alone and was among 526 other VIPs who had been similarly profiled, including former prime ministers and United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi since the days of the UPA rule. A combative Jaitley reminded the Congress that during the UPA regime, a certain minister’s (without naming Pranab Mukherjee) room was bugged by his own government.

Hoping to put the government on the backfoot, the Congress announced last week that it wanted answers from the government on the floor of Parliament, alleging the move was an attempt to transform India into a “police state”, based on the “Gujarat model”.

Arun Jaitley stumped the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, when he offered to share the 526 pro formas of the VIPs with him and that both could sit together and go through it. Jaitley stated Delhi Police’s information gathering exercise was a “transparent, security profiling and not associated with any kind of snooping or spying”.

Responding to queries on why unintelligible queries on Gandhi’s shoe size, etc, had been asked, Jaitley hit back at the Congress, reminding them that a former prime minister (Rajiv Gandhi), when he was assassinated, had been identified through his shoes. “Let us stick to being politicians and not try to be security experts,” he advised.

When Kharge, who was permitted to raise the issue only at noon during Zero Hour, alleged the NDA government was pursuing the Gujarat model of governance by snooping on political opponents, Jaitley replied Delhi Police had been collecting such information since 1987 on VIPs living in Lutyens’ Delhi.

Samajwadi Party’s Naresh Agarwal also raised the issue and gave a notice to suspend House business. He alleged that about 100,000 telephones were being tapped daily without necessary permission.

JD(U)’s K C Tyagi demanded a full discussion on invasion of privacy, as well as corporate and political espionage.

The government informed the House that the 1987 pro forma was revised in 1999 and had been used to profile former prime ministers H D Dewa Gowda, I K Gujral, Manmohan Singh and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Congress President Sonia Gandhi was similarly profiled in 2004, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. Pranab Mukherjee, before becoming the President, was profiled in 2001, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2012. Senior BJP leaders L K Advani and Sushma Swaraj, Ahmed Patel of the Congress, CPI-M’s Sitaram Yechury and Sharad Yadav of JD-U had been profiled in a similar manner.