New Delhi: BJP on Friday dubbed the reports of alleged bugging of Defence Minister A K Antony`s office as a "serious" matter which should be thoroughly probed and wondered what the reasons were for spying on the cabinet minister.
"The Defence Minister who is responsible for defending our borders, his own office borders are not secure. The reports of the bugging of his office is a matter of serious concern," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.
The BJP pointed out that this is not the first case of bugging of the office of a Cabinet minister as there were earlier reports that Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee`s office was also bugged.
"Then it was maintained that chewing gums were stuck at 12 places in the Finance Minister`s office.
We hope this time too, the same excuse is not made. This matter cannot be taken lightly and the truth should be told to the country," Javadekar said.
BJP has decided to raise this issue in Parliament in the forthcoming budget session, he said. The party maintained there could be deeper reasons for bugging the Defence Minister`s office.
"Who is putting these devices? Is this due to the tensions and rift between the party (Congress) and the government or between ministers? Or, is it due to the huge defence deals being finalised? Or, is there a dispute within
the defence establishment? Or, are foreign agencies involved?" Javadekar said.
BJP President Nitin Gadkari described the alleged bugging of Antony`s office as "unfortunate".
"After such an incident was reported earlier the Prime Minister had intervened, but this is happening again and again. It is up to the Prime Minister; he should take serious note of it and stop such happenings.
Things like tapping opposition leaders` phones are not good for our democracy," he said.
PTI
