Asserting telephone tapping without real substantial reason was unethical and illegal, senior BJP leader Pramod Mahajan on Tuesday saw a 'lot of strength' in Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh's allegation that his phone was tapped.
"There is substance in his (Amar Singh's) allegation. He is not talking nonsense. Already three persons have been arrested and half a dozen CDs of his phone recordings are with the police," Mahanjan told reporters in Guwahati.
"Under the Indian Telegraph Act tapping is allowed only in the public interest. But what is public interest has not been defined. Taking this seriously, the government in the national interest should come out with a definition of what is `public interest' so that people's privacy is not disturbed", the former information minister said.
Militants, criminals, anti-national elements phones could be tapped in national interest, but it was illegal to monitor the phones of political and business rivals, bureaucrats, and journalists, he added.
Asked if liberalisation of the telecom sector was leading to the increased allegations of phone tapping, Mahajan said, "Liberalisation has nothing to do with it. 99.9 per cent of the telecom workers are Indian. Besides, ministers use only MTNL connections and that, too, restricted area telephone service (RATS) for communication."
{{/usCountry}}Asked if liberalisation of the telecom sector was leading to the increased allegations of phone tapping, Mahajan said, "Liberalisation has nothing to do with it. 99.9 per cent of the telecom workers are Indian. Besides, ministers use only MTNL connections and that, too, restricted area telephone service (RATS) for communication."
{{/usCountry}}Singh had recently alleged his telephone was tapped by the Congress-led UPA central government and moved the Supreme Court for a judicial probe into the tapping.