CPM Asks Govt to Admit Phone Tapping

The CPM has asked the central government to own up tapping the telephones of four top political leaders and sought action against those who ordered the alleged surveillance, said media reports.

“The government must own up responsibility in the matter and take action against those who ordered the surveillance. Protecting the covert activities of the intelligence and security agencies cannot be made the pretext for a cover-up,” the CPM said in a statement.

The party issued the statement in reaction of a report of Outlook magazine that said that the government tapped the telephones of CPM leader Prakash Karat, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Congress leader Digvijay Singh.

“The report shows that the government is using the intelligence and security agencies to serve its political purpose to spy upon opposition leaders and to keep track of even its own allies and party leaders,” it was quoted as saying.

The party also said that acts like recording phones is intolerable as they ‘subvert the democratic system and breed an atmosphere of illegality in the higher echelons of the government’, said reports.

It demanded that the government should place in parliament a clear set of guidelines prohibiting the use of intelligence and security agencies in any form of surveillance of political leaders, reports said.

“Instructions on tapping of phones and surveillance on grounds of national security or investigation of criminal activity must be codified. The intelligence and security agencies must be subject to parliamentary oversight,” it was quoted as saying.

(Based on internet reports)