Providing 'security and protection' cannot be called snooping: Arun Jaitley

NEW DELHI: Stating that providing 'security and protection' cannot be called snooping, Arun Jaitley, Senior BJP leader on Wednesday said, "When my phone was tapped then none of the Congress leaders spoke up."

Asked about the need for a probe into the matter, Jaitley said, "When the girl and her father have demanded security for whatever specified reasons, then I see no reason for a probe."

Earlier in the day, BJP warned Congress that it should desist from raking up the issue of the alleged snooping of a woman by Gujarat government, saying the party "would have nowhere to hide if the skeletons in its cupboards are brought in the open".

Party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said Congress should let the matter rest now that the girl's father has written to the National Commission for Women stating that the Narendra Modi government had made security arrangements for his daughter with the family's consent.

"I think Congress should stop at that. If personal attacks begin, Congress has many skeletons in its cupboards and it will have nowhere to hide," Javadekar told reporters.

He remarked that, bereft of any issue, the ruling party had resorted to the "disgraceful" tactic of attacking the privacy of a family to target Modi.

"This is disgraceful and dangerous. Let's do politics of issues," he said.

BJP also attacked Finance Minister P Chidambaram for his attack at Modi over the issue.

Javadekar said that instead of attacking a family's privacy, Chidambaram should talk about price rise, the fall in the value of the rupee and rising unemployment.

"The first time I have heard that there is a request for providing security and in that wonderful state (Gujarat), security is provided by stalking and snooping," Chidambaram had said in his comments.

Congress and BJP have been sparring over the issue after two investigative portals released audio tapes allegedly of conversations between the then Gujarat home minister and Modi aide Amit Shah and an IPS officer discussing the surveillance of the woman.

Congress said it was illegal and showed how individual liberty was being undermined by the Modi government while BJP asserted that it was part of security arrangements for her with her father having sought the same.