Turmoil in Rajasthan as Sachin Pilot camp fires fresh ‘phone tap’ salvo

(This story originally appeared in on Jun 13, 2021)

Phone-tapping charges have come back to haunt the Ashok Gehlot government in Rajasthan. Congress MLA from Jaipur district’s Chaksu seat, Ved Prakash Solanki, a vocal supporter of Sachin Pilot, claimed on Saturday that some legislators had told him about their phones being tapped. Solanki, however, declined to name these MLAs. He also had no idea who was tapping the their phones and on whose orders. “I do not know if my phone is being tapped or not. I am also not aware if the state government is involved in phone-tapping or not. But some legislators told me about their phones being recorded,” Solanki told TOI.

Solanki said these MLAs used an app to check if their phones were being tapped. The Chaksu MLA also claimed that some of these MLAs had even informed the CM about their phone-tapping fears but the latter had laughed off the matter.Solanki said the same MLAs informed him that police and intelligence personnel were watching them. “The MLAs also shared (information) about how some government officials had cautioned them against being trapped by the anti-corruption bureau,” Solanki said. On being asked whether these MLAs belonged to the Sachin Pilot camp, Solanki replied, “They are Congress MLAs.” Reacting to this, Congress chief whip in the assembly Mahesh Joshi said, “These are baseless charges. A responsible person like an MLA should make a public statement after verifying things on proof (sic).” BJP state president Satish Poonia tweeted, “Today again a Congress MLA is saying that many MLAs say their phones are being tapped, spying is happening. Congress should tell who these MLAs are? (sic) Congress is intimidating its own MLAs on the lines of ‘so jaa beta, Gabbar aa jayega’ (dialogue from a Bollywood classic). Congress should tell when will Gabbar come? (sic)” Transport minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas said, “This is a BJP and RSS ploy to divert public attention from the corruption charges against their members in the bribery deal connected with Jaipur’s sanitation issues (sic).” Last July, when Pilot and 18 Congress legislators had rebelled against chief minister Ashok Gehlot, one of the accusations they had levelled was about illegal phone-tapping.