Former NDA ally and national convenor of Rashtriya Loktantrik Party Hanuman Beniwal claimed that phone tapping by the Ashok Gehlot government was not a one-off incident and that his phone was also tapped by the previous BJP government headed by Vasundhara Raje.
Eight months after “leaked” phone conversations between a Union Minister and Congress leaders in Rajasthan pushed the Congress on the verge of a split, the government confirmed that phones were indeed “intercepted”. The confirmation was posted on the website of the Rajasthan Assembly in reply to a question posed by a BJP MLA.
“The Ashok Gehlot government should resign. There are no two ways about it. The government has committed a crime. There is a proper procedure in place for phone interception and there has to be a valid reason to do so. The Gehlot government had no reason to tap phones of legislators other than the hunger to hold on to power,” Mr. Beniwal told The Hindu.
While attacking the Congress, the RLP leader made it clear that the BJP was also not blemish-free.
“In the previous regime, when I was fighting all alone against the Vasundhra Raje govt., they tapped my phone too. I had raised this issue in the Rajasthan Assembly earlier too. I demand that both the incidents should be investigated,” he added.
Mr. Beniwal, who is elected from Nagaur, the lone Parliamentary constituency that the BJP conceded to the RLP in the 2019 general election, recently parted ways with the NDA, in protest against the three farm laws.
The RLP leader said that the Congress had to blame itself for political instability in the State. “Ashok Gehlot formed the government by buying legislators and playing divisive politics. He first broke the BSP in the State by poaching its six MLAs. And, see, all the communities in Rajasthan feel cheated, because the Congress had claimed they will have a Gujjar CM to please the Gujjars, a Jat CM to please the Jats and a Dalit CM to please the Scheduled Caste community. They are just reaping what they sowed,” Mr. Beniwal said.
The Raje group within the BJP, Mr. Beniwal said, supported and propped the Gehlot government. “They are all working in cahoots with each other. In the end, the people of Rajasthan are suffering,” he said.
