The issue of alleged tapping of Rajasthan Agriculture Minister Dr Kirodi Lal Meena’s phone disrupted proceedings in the state assembly on Friday with the agitated opposition trooping into the well, reciting “Ram Dhuni” to press upon the Chief Minister’s resignation.

As soon as the House assembled at 1100 hours on Friday, leader of the opposition Tikaram Julie stood up and raised this issue, saying, “The phone of a cabinet minister is being tapped, and a minister is levelling allegations against the Chief Minister; therefore, the CM should resign.

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This triggered uproar in the House as the opposition Congress members resorted to slogan chanting and trooping into the well.

At this, Srichand Kriplani of the ruling BJP made a provocative gesture by waving a saffron stole as the opposition members recited Ram dhuni — “Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram”.

Speaker Vasudev Devnani tried to persuade the protesting MLAs to abide by the decorum of the House, saying, “As you recite Ram dhuni, you should also abide by Ram’s ‘Maryada’.

Government Whip Jogeshwar Garg retorted, saying that Congress had no moral ground to speak on phone tapping, as this had happened during its own previous regime.

The Speaker said, “Since you don’t seem keen about the proceedings of the question hour, I shall direct all ministers to table their (written) answers.

Ministers followed the directive, reading answers to the questions in a one-sided manner, though some members from the Treasury bench posed a supplementary or two.

The Zero Hour proceedings were also marred by protests and uproar in the House.

Agriculture Minister Dr Meena had alleged at a public function in Aamagarh on Thursday that his phone was being tapped. “I am being spied on. This was practised during the previous regime as well, but I succeeded in foiling the attempt. Now, this is being repeated in the current regime.”

Meena said, “I had exposed certain matters pertaining to corruption, but the government put me under surveillance. I had demanded the cancellation of the SI recruitment exam following the arrest of 50 tainted SI trainees. In response to my demand, they sent CID sleuths to keep a watch on me.”

However, Minister of State for Home Jawahar Singh Bedham denied the allegations of phone tapping, saying, “We are not tapping the phone of the minister or anyone else.”

Later, Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma said, “Those who are tainted with such tapping charges are levelling allegations against me. This is a conspiracy against the son of farmer, as they cannot tolerate a common Kisan Putra like me in the power.”

Sharma also targeted the opposition Congress for its chronic evils of corruption, failure to curb price rise and inflation, and neglect in protecting the interests of farmers during its 70 years in power.

Later, at a press briefing, the state Congress president, Govind Singh Dotasara, said that the Chief Minister neither responded to nor refuted the allegations made by Minister Meena. “What does this mean?” Dotasara asked.

“If the phone of a cabinet Minister can be tapped, then who knows, maybe ours are also being tapped,” he said.