LDF members in the Assembly failed in their bid to corner the government on the charge of ‘phone tapping’ of political opponents and leaders in the Congress fold itself, as Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan countered it steadfastly by asserting that tapping the phones of political leaders or other eminent personalities is not the policy of the UDF government.
T V Rajesh and Elamaram Kareem (both CPM) raised the issue during question hour on the first day of the monsoon session of the Assembly on Monday, beefing it with the charges levelled by NSS general secretary G Sukumaran Nair and connected salvos that the phones of even KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala and K Muraleedharan MLA and others have been put under the scanner for quite some time. The Home Minister denied the charge and the mention of ‘phone tapping’ is itself is misleading and instead, what is being resorted to is only ‘interception’ of communication emanating and received with regard to persons posing a threat to internal security, hawala business, indulging in anti-national activities, terrorists etc,.
‘’It is not possible even if the government wished to intercept the phone calls of political and other leaders since categorisation and other completion of other formalities is essential by law, which is governed by rules dating back to 1885 in the colonial era. The interception was resorted to by all the governments which ruled the state since 1957,’’ he said. The Home Minister said that Ramesh Chennithala is the state president of his party and he had never lodged a complaint with the government till date.
K Muraleedharan, who was present in the House, rose and maintained that his phone is not understood to be tapped, taking the wind out of the sails of the Opposition benches. Rajesh said that he had filed a writ petition in the court against the government on the charge of tapping his phone, but no counter-affidavit has been filed even after six months. It shows that the government is hiding many things ,he charged. Elamaram Kareem went ahead with further charges that a phone-tapping exercise is massively coordinated from a rented building near Peroorkada in the capital city at the instance of the Home Department , without an office address and using vehicles without sign plates.
‘’A machine capable of tapping 1,000 phones at a time is put to use in that building,’’ he alleged. Thiruvanchoor turned the tables on the LDF saying that the former government might have used such machines. ‘’While the UDF government came to power in May 18, 2012, one of the first communique received from the Centre was that the use of the said machine has been banned,’’ he said.
‘’If necessary, the government can issue orders on who all were subject to phone-tapping during the last government’s time with the aid of that machine,’’ he said.
