Of India's Watergate

The Opposition on Wednesday continued to use Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s complaint about eavesdropping on him to drive home their point that differences between Manmohan Singh’s ministerial colleagues have become unbridgeable. The BJP said the complaint of bugging by Mukherjee showed that the “division in the government was more than suspected” and that even the finance minister was not protected from spying. Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj, who termed as a “big joke” the Intelligence Bureau’s “chewing gum theory” regarding the alleged bugging of Mukherjee’s office, demanded effective steps to protect the minister. “The allegation of spying at Pranab Mukherjee’s office is a serious matter. The finance minister himself may try to dismiss it...he may be under some compulsions. But the country wants to know,” Swaraj said. Swaraj said Mukherjee’s complaint to the prime minister in September regarding discovery of “planted adhesives” at 16 places in North Block — including his own office, his adviser Omita Paul’s room, his private secretary Manoj Pant’s office and two conference rooms — should be taken seriously. “As far as the allegations are concerned, two questions can be raised... whether the spying was being carried out by the government itself against its finance minister or some corporate house was doing it. In both the situations, it is a serious issue,” the BJP leader said. Slamming the IB, which concluded that the adhesive may just be chewing gum left behind by maintenance staff, she said “if they give such a childish argument and expect the country to believe that those were chewing gums, people will laugh and ask from where did such an intelligent chewing gum came”. “Even Pranab must be knowing the difference between adhesive and chewing gum. I demand the government should take his letter seriously and conduct a thorough probe.” Swaraj said if anyone in the government had bugged the finance minister’s office, it reflected the “trust deficit” between the ministers. In case some corporate house was involved, it was a serious security breach. “That is why I called it the Watergate of India. There (in the US) it was done against the opposition. Still the American President had to resign. Here it is against their own FM...the country should know the truth,” she said.