Jharkhand govt tapping our phones: Babulal

Ranchi: BJP leader Babulal Marandi on Saturday stirred a hornet’s nest by accusing the Hemant Soren government of tapping the phones of his party colleagues illegally but it was met with a vehement denial from the ruling parties in the state.
Marandi’s allegations, which were without any substantive evidence, came at a time when his own party government at the Centre is charged with using the Israeli spyware Pegasus to illegally snoop on telephones of several people in the country.
Talking to TOI over the phone, Marandi said, “I have been hearing that of late the ruling dispensation has increased its surveillance of big and small workers of BJP in the state out of political vendetta. Many who are connected with me have expressed fear about it saying how the government is using phone tapping as a tool to track their whereabouts and activities.
“Officials working at the direction of the government on such illegal activities must always remember that no government is in power for eternity. They must also take lessons from history that anyone doing such illegal acts will have to pay sooner or later,” the former chief minister warned.
While Marandi did not provide any proof to back his claims, he, however, said he will bring it out at the right time.
In the past, former minister Saryu Rai, who was part of Raghubar Das cabinet in the previous BJP regime, had accused his own government (read chief minister Rabhubar Das) of surveillance using the special branch of police.
Denying Marandi's charge, JMM central general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharjee asked him to file a complaint before a competent authority if he has proof of his allegations.
"Babulal ji must also reveal the names of all those whose phones are being tapped if he has the information. He must also complain before a competent authority on this issue rather than just making baseless allegations. The reality is that all BJP leaders are today terrified because of their wrongdoings by their past governments. BJP is only putting Babulalji on the front to rake up non-issues," Bhattacharjee said.
Marandi, however, said his brand of politics has always been based on issues and maintained that any government resorting to illegal surveillance of politicians is bad in democracy.
Citing an example of surveillance in the early 2000s when he was the CM, Marandi said, “Once I learnt that some MLAs were huddling in Tamar for a secret meeting. A senior official of the state police then suggested to me that he secretly puts them under detention and keep constant vigil over them to prevent any untoward incident. But I had strongly rejected the idea as I believe that politicians must never be kept under any kind of such surveillance, irrespective of which government is in power. I am okay if the police keep criminals and Naxals on their radar.”
He, however, didn’t comment on the Pegasus row which broke last month. In the past, Marandi had dubbed the controversy as an attempt by anti-BJP and anti-Modi camp’s to defame the country and the prime minister.
Meanwhile, Congress advised Marandi to question their leader (Modi) on the surveillance rather than make accusations against the state government.
Party spokesperson Alok Dubey said, “Babulal ji doesn’t have to be wary about the JMM-Congress-RJD government in this state as it is for the people and by the people. Rather than levelling baseless allegations, he along with the state BJP unit must question Modi ji if and why his government resorted to illegal surveillance using the Israeli software. Even the Supreme Court has recently expressed concern over it and stated that a detailed probe must be done if the reports of the Pegasus Project were true.”