Parliament may be paralyzed by phone-tapping row

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, April 24: After IPL’s Modigate, a wiretap scandal is set to capture the attention of Parliament next week after media reports alleged that advanced tapping technology acquired by government had been used to listen in on conversations of Opposition politicians as well as some Congress leaders.

The Indian version of ‘Watergate’ surfaced in a report on Friday that sophisticated equipment meant to eavesdrop and track terrorists or terror suspects had been used to track the conversation of Congress’s Digvijay Singh, NCP leader Sharad Pawar and CPM general secretary Prakash Karat. The sensational claim is likely to lead to an uproar and may result in stalling Parliament proceedings on Monday.

The tapping was reportedly carried out by National Technical Research Organization, an intelligence agency created after the Kargil war. As India comes under increased terror threat, “tech-int” has emerged as an important tool to foil terrorist designs. But the off-the-air GSM/CDMA interceptors can track calls of not just terror suspects but also of others, politicians included.