MoS home denies tapping min Kirori Lal Meena’s phone

Jaipur: Minister of state (MoS) for home Jawahar Singh Bedam on Sunday dismissed allegations of phone surveillance on his cabinet colleague Kirori Lal Meena.
Bedam said govt's surveillance operations are exclusively targeted towards criminals and gangsters, not ministers.
His statement comes in response to Meena's viral video on Feb 7 in which the senior BJP leader alleged his phone was being tapped and that he was under govt surveillance due to his open criticism of corruption in some departments. The statement snowballed into a major controversy with Congress MLAs raising the issue in the ongoing budget session of the assembly.
Downplaying the controversy, Bedam told TOI, "I haven't seen the video, but from what I gather from news reports, Meena was referring to incidents of phone tapping and spying during the Congress govt. It seems his statement has been misinterpreted by some sections of the media."
When asked whether his department investigated Meena's claims, Bedam said, "I am officially stating that no minister is under any kind of surveillance."
On whether he communicated this to Meena directly, he said, "I am in regular contact with him and will reach out to him on the current issue soon."
Bedam also asserted that he had responded to Meena's claims in the House on Feb 7, but that his statement was drowned out in the din caused by opposition protests. "The opposition played petty politics over a non-issue. I clarified the same thing on the floor of the House, but it wasn't heard due to Congress's protests," he said.
In a viral video, he can be heard saying, "Just like the previous govt, this govt has deployed CID personnel everywhere, and my phone is being tapped." ("Sarkar (BJP govt) ki taraf se jaise pichle baar (Former Congress govt) mein bhi hua karta tha, chappe chappe pe CID rehte hai aur mera phone bhi tape kiya ja raha hai.")
Reacting to Bedam's statement, Leader of Opposition (LOP) Tikaram Jully said, "Meena is clearly accusing his own government of surveillance. Bedam's claim that Meena was only referring to the previous Congress govt is completely untrue."
Jully also alleged that the BJP govt is not only spying on a senior leader but also manipulating his statement to downplay the issue. "Had we not raised this in the Assembly, the Bhajan Lal Sharma govt's internal conflicts would have never come to light. Infighting within the BJP is their internal matter, but conflicts within the govt concern the eight crore people of Rajasthan."