Chandigarh: BJP on Sunday hit out at Home
Minister P Chidambaram for his stand that the reported bugging
of the office of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was a
"non-event", calling it the "biggest comedy" of independent
India.
BJP spokesman Ravishankar Prasad while describing the
alleged bugging as a serious matter demanded that the Finance
Minister's letter to the Prime Minister over this incident be
made public.
Reacting sharply to Chidambaram saying he did not know
about the bugging incident in the offices of the Finance
Minister and his aides, BJP spokesman Ravishankar Prasad said,
"While the Finance Minister takes services of CBDT and foreign
investigators before writing to the Prime Minister, the Home
Minister says he was not aware."
Expressing surprise at Chidambaram's statement that he
was not aware of the Intelligence Bureau's(IB) probe into
Mukherjee's complaint about 'bugging" of his office in North
Block despite the IB being under the Home Minister, Prasad
said, "...It is the biggest comedy of Independent India."
Claiming that Mukherjee suspected bugging in his
office and even wrote a letter to the Prime Minister in this
regard, he said the BJP wanted the contents of the letter to
be made public.
"The letter which the Finance Minister wrote to the
Prime Minister must be made public," Prasad told reporters,
adding that North Block was not the private property of
Chidambaram or anybody else.
Chidambaram yesterday dismissed as "feverish and
hyperactive imagination" allegations of civil war between him
and the Finance Minister and termed the reported bugging in
his office as a "non-event".
BJP leader Murli Manohar meanwhile to a question on
BJP targetting Chidambaram while earlier he was compared to
Sardar Patel said, "The party has never officially given any
certificate of efficiency or good governance to Chidambaram.
We have never accepted him as the second Sardar Patel."
PTI
First Published: Sunday, June 26, 2011, 19:58