Letters: Political espionage?

This refers to the report "Congress may harden stance after snooping incident" (March 16). What the Delhi Police has called a routine security exercise done in case of VIPs has been converted by the Congress into an opportunity to accuse the Narendra Modi government of "snooping" and carrying out "political espionage" on Rahul Gandhi. This security exercise started in 1957 and further details have been added to it subsequently. The exercise has reportedly covered many prominent residents of Delhi's Lutyens' Bungalow Zone so far, which included Sonia Gandhi, former prime ministers I K Gujral, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh, and other Cabinet ministers. Prime Minister Modi joined the list in 2014, while Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah was included this year. Rahul Gandhi is an SPG-protected VIP and cannot be treated differently.

In a similar manner, in 1991, the Congress had accused the then Chandra Shekhar government of mounting surveillance on Rajiv Gandhi and had withdrawn support to pull it down. But now, it is nowhere close to such a position.

M C Joshi Lucknow

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