New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday projected the Delhi police officials’ visit to Rahul Gandhi’s residence in New Delhi and their queries about him as a “serious national issue” while accusing the Narendra Modi government of carrying out “political espionage” on the party vice-president. But the Delhi police chief rejected allegations of snooping, saying it was a routine exercise of being in touch with dignitaries. The BJP hit back at the Congress, saying the Opposition party has the habit of seeing conspiracies even in “routine” matters and considered itself above the law.
The main Opposition demanded a “comprehensive explanation from no less than the home minister and the Prime Minister” on it while rejecting the police’s claim that the episode was merely a security issue. It has decided to raise the issue in Parliament next week.
While the party has made it clear that this is not a Congress-centric issue, it claimed that leaders of Opposition parties are under surveillance after the regime change in Delhi. Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said that the Delhi police officials who visited Mr Gandhi’s residence had made “unwarranted and weird” enquiries about him.
Asserting that no law permits such a procedure, he said that the issue of “snooping and surveillance”” on Mr Gandhi would be raised inside and outside Parliament. “Through you, we have raised it nationally. It is wider. We will raise it in all fora,” he told reporters. Mr Gandhi is on a sabbatical since the start of the Budget Session of Parliament on February 23. Some police officials went to his residence on March 12 and reportedly asked what he looked like, the colour of his eyes, names of his friends, their addresses, telephone numbers etc.
“This kind of political espionage, snooping and surveillance, this kind of intrusion in political opponents’ life, this may be the Gujarat model. It is not India’s model. The track record shows it is a model perfected in Gujarat, especially for political opponents, judges, journalists and private persons...”
Refusing to see it as a matter only concerning the police, he said they have better things to do than to “listen to the dictates of their political masters”.
Calling it a “serious national issue”, Mr Singhvi drew parallels with incidents of alleged phone-tapping and snooping in Gujarat when Mr Modi was chief minister and said “it is something against which parties irrespective of political colour should stand up”.
Meanwhile, confirming that some police personnel visited Mr Gandhi’s residence, Delhi police commissioner B.S. Bassi rejected the allegation of snooping and said such visits are a routine practice of being in touch with the dignitaries and there was no mala fide in it.
“Rahul Gandhi was not targeted by the police. It was a routine activity which is done to keep records of vulnerable personalities. The police also visited the houses of Veerappa Moily, L.K. Advani, K. Chandrasekhar Rao, among others. There was no mala fide intention behind seeking details about Gandhi,” he said.
Mr Bassi said the police was never asked either by Prime Minister’s Office or the home ministry to visit Mr Gandhi’s residence and asserted that there was no political pressure on the police. He said such surveys are conducted at the offices of all protected persons from time to time for the prevention and detection of crime and maintaining law and order.
“Two cops went to Rahul Gandhi’s residence. Our beat officer, Rameshwar Dayal, went to his house on March 12 and sought details about him. As beat officers are not able to directly meet such persons, they contact their office staff and leave pro forma pertaining to required details,” he said.
According to Mr Bassi, on the same day, Mr Dayal went to the houses of MP Krishan Pal Gujjar, Naresh Agarwal, M. Veerappa Moily and Telangana chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao. Mr Bassi added that the police keeps the details of all vulnerable leaders, like Amit Shah, Sonia Gandhi, 7, Race Course Road etc.
“Such details are also important in many cases... For instance, if there is any protest outside the house of any important leader, cops may face problems in locating the house and identifying their staff without any such information,” the police chief said.
While special branch ASI Shamsher made the first visit on March 6 to Mr Gandhi’s house, constable Rameshwar of beat number 7 of Tughlak Road paid the second visit on March 12. Additional deputy commissioner of police (New Delhi) Jatin Narwal visited Mr Gandhi’s Tughlak Lane residence on Saturday at about 10.30 am to enquire about the visits and the sequence of events, soon after which the top cop, in a media interaction, ruled out any snooping.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Youth Congress workers gathered outside Union home minister Rajnath Singh’s residence to protest against the alleged snooping. Some of them had to be detained by the police using minimum force.
Meanwhile, BJP spokesman Sudhanshu Trivedi termed the police verification on Mr Gandhi as a “routine exercise” being carried out by Delhi police for years, saying the same had been done even in the case of the Prime Minister, the home minister, BJP chief Amit Shah, veteran leader L.K. Advani and other senior Opposition leaders like M. Veerappa Moily, Naresh Agarwal and K. Chandrasekhar Rao.
The Congress, Mr Trivedi alleged, was devoid of any issues, which is why it was making an issue out of such matters to gain political relevance.
He alleged that the Congress had resorted to snooping during its own rule when reports of bugging on then finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had surfaced but no satisfactory explanation was given by the government.
But Mr Singhvi rejected as “laughable” the BJP’s claim. Asked about the motive behind the alleged snooping, Mr Singhvi said that he was not there to speculate but quipped that “political espionage is not done because you are shaking hands with political adversaries or have dinner with them”.
In Srinagar, former J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah mocked the Delhi police. “There is a spate of robberies in Lutyens Delhi & the police reach Rahul Gandhi’s office to find out what he looks like. You have to laugh,” Mr Abdullah wrote on micro-blogging site Twitter.
He said stand-up comedians would be “salivating” at what they could do with such a “script”.
He also gave details of his looks in a sarcastic tweet aimed at the Delhi police. “Dear Delhi police, just to save your chaps time & effort I’m 179 cms, medium build, fair complexion, grey eyes & greying hair. U R welcome,” he wrote.
