BJP to demand Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into IPL, phone-tapping issue

New Delhi, April 25 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday said it would demand a probe into the Indian Premier League (IPL) controversy and the phone-tapping incident by a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on Monday in the Parliament.

"The BJP will ask for the suspensions of the Parliament tomorrow and will ask for a discussion on the issues of phone-tapping and the IPL (Indian Premiere League) controversy. The BJP will demand for the formation of a common JPC for both the phone-tapping issue and the IPL controversy. And in one JPC we will bring in the references of both the issues in the same," said Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson.

The party also said that it would like Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to explain the phone tapping incident, in the Parliament.

'Outlook' magazine in a cover story has reported that government's intelligence agencies had tapped the phones of key Communist leader, Prakash Karat, and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar among others.

"As per Section 5 of the Indian Telegraphic Act, 1885, tapping was allowed only during an emergency and in the interest of public safety. But the Centre tapped calls between Indian Premier League commissioner Lalit Modi and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar earlier this month, calls of CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat and other Opposition leaders during the civil nuclear agreement with the U.S. and of the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh and Congress leaders of Punjab in the past, and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's calls to Central officials seeking additional funds recently, he said. By the government's own admission, phone tapping was done in the past by the National Technical Research Organisation, set up during the Kargil War, working under the National Security Adviser in the Prime Minister's Office. Thus, the Prime Minister could not plead ignorance of what happened. By tapping phones, the government invaded the security, freedom and privacy of individuals and it was the PMO's responsibility to explain at whose instance it was done," Teugu Desam Party president N. Chandrababu Naidu quoted in The Hindu as saying on Saturday.ANI)