Congress dares Modi, Shah to answer snoopgate questions

The Congress Sunday dared BJP leader Narendra Modi and his aide Amit Shah, both accused of illegally snooping on a woman architect, to come clean by answering 10 questions on the entire issue.

Alleging that Modi, Shah and the BJP leadership are yet to make public the "reason, purpose and motive" of tapping the phones and tracking the movements of a young Gujarati girl, the party said in a statement the audio tapes brought out by two news portals reveal "shocking, grim and completely unacceptable level of surveillance".

Citing the fundamental right to privacy guaranteed by the Indian constitution, the Congress asked if Modi and Shah had the right to "conduct surveillance of the woman as also tapping her phones and those of her friends and acquaintances with complete impunity in a totally illegal fashion?"

The party, while accusing Modi of hiding the fact that he knew the girl for "close to five years" before he allegedly snooped on her, also demanded to know the reason behind putting her under surveillance on the basis of an "oral, undated request" by her parents, as the BJP has claimed in its defence of Modi.

The Congress also alleged in one of its questions that the Gujarat government had given undue favours to a firm floated by the father of the said girl and asked the prime ministerial candidate, also the Gujarat chief minister to answer the charge.

The Congress asked if any public purpose was served by allegedly snooping on the girl and if the Gujarat government informed other states in which these alleged activities carried out?

Asking the BJP to reveal the money spent on the exercise and the resources utilised, the Congress asked if this was not "stalking" and should it not be tried as an offence under section 26 of the Indian Telegraph Act, "read with section-120-B as also section 166 of Indian Penal Code".

--Indo-Asian News service

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