Rahul Gandhi 'snooping': BJP pulls up Congress for 'playing politics'

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday alleged that the Congress was playing politics over the inquiry about Rahul Gandhi's whereabouts and said this is a routine exercise and not snooping.

Minister of State for Environment and Forests Prakash Javadekar said the Congress is bereft of any issue and, therefore, is making a profiling of a protected leader which is a 'non-issue into an issue'.

"The fact is very clear that this profiling started with this proforma in 1987 in the Congress rule and it continued throughout the period. Till today, more than 526 protected leaders are being profiled. The information is updated periodically," he added.

The senior BJP leader claimed that even Congress president Sonia Gandhi's information on the same proforma has been collected five times during the former UPA regime.

"Was it a snooping? They must answer....They have no objection to Sonia Gandhi being profiled and they have every objection for asking information from Rahul Gandhi's office," he added.

Javadekar also alleged that the Congress was playing politics over the entire episode.

"This is absolutely unexplainable. This is a routine exercise but they want to make politics out of it and they want to lecture us on democracy. The people, who brought emergency and put all of us in jail for fighting against it, are now giving lectures. This is not spying, this is not snooping, this is just asking information and updating it," he said.

Earlier in the day, the Congress confronted the BJP-led government at the Centre over the alleged political espionage against its vice-president Rahul Gandhi by the Delhi Police.

The Delhi Police personnel had last week visited Rahul Gandhi's office and sought details about his height and colour of eyes and hair.

The Delhi Police, however, later said it was a routine security enquiry and that there was no malafide intention behind it.