The alleged tapping of Agriculture Minister Dr Kirodi Lal Meena’s phone again rocked the Rajasthan assembly on Thursday as Opposition Congress members, not content with the government’s reply to the charges, staged a walkout.

In keeping with the assurance given to the Opposition leaders by Speaker Vasudev Devnani at an all-party meeting of the government’s reply to charges, Minister of State for Home Jawahar Singh Bedham strongly denied the accusations. Bedham said, “The state government did not tap Dr Kirodi Lal Meena’s phone. I do state with full responsibility that we did not order to put any phone on tapping. KirodiJi himself refuted the allegations.” The minister said under the prevalent Telecommunication Law and the rules and regulations for curbing cyber crimes, it is not possible to tap anybody’s phone.

Advertisement

Even in unusual/exceptional situations, where a phone has to be tapped, even that of a criminal, though it is inevitable, involves a complicated procedure for seeking mandatory approvals at different levels, Bedham said.

However, members in the Opposition benches were not satisfied with the minister’s reply. Leader of the Opposition Tikaram Julie said Minister Dr Meena had not refuted the tapping charges. He only said he (Meena) should not have spoken about it at a (public) gathering. “Contrary to Bedham’s assertion, KirodiJi said he had inputs (about tapping)”, Julie quipped. Now that the government (MoS Home) said in the august House that there was no tapping we have to trust the government’s words, he added.

“However, it seems there is a lack of trust between Minister Meena and the government. Meena himself had said a few months ago that ‘the chief minister doesn’t have faith and confidence in me’,” Julie said. He said, “In such a situation, we want the government to take appropriate action against KirodiJi, accept his resignation (that is pending before the CM for several months),” he asserted.

Julie also took exception to Forest Minister Sanjay Sharma coming in the house with a placard with a picture of an incident during the previous Ashok Gehlot-led Congress regime. Dissatisfied over the government’s reply and lack of response to his objection from the treasury benches, the leader of the Opposition announced his party’s resolve to walk out.

Following this, members from the Opposition benches walked out of the house together. Forest Minister Sharma’s indiscretion also left Speaker Devnani in an embarrassing situation. Taking an exception to the minister’s conduct, he issued him a stern warning. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Joga Ram Patel pacified the Speaker and apologised to the House on behalf of Sharma and the treasury benches. Earlier on February 7, the issue of phone tapping disrupted the proceedings of the assembly for almost the full day.