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Sparring over Delhi Police officials visiting Rahul Gandhi's residence intensified today with the Congress accusing the Modi government of "snooping" on opposition leaders while the Bharatiya Janata Party dubbed the charge on Congress vice president as "atrocious".
"The present government has much to answer when it comes to right of privacy of citizens. They are are now trying to do it everywhere what was happening in one state. Both Modi and Amit Shah are now here.
"It is not confined to one person. It is much deeper. The practice that they had adopted in Gujarat, they want to carry it out now every where," party spokesperson Anand Sharma told reporters at the All India Congress Committee office in Delhi.
He had also justified his remarks in an interview, claiming that senior opposition leaders' phones are being "tapped" and surveillance is being carried on them.
Asked whether he has any proof to back his allegation, Sharma said, "letters are not sent for phone tapping to polical leaders, judges and others...It can be proved only if the Prime Minister, Home Minister give letters to Opposition leaders regarding their phone tapping."
In Hyderabad, the BJP trashed the Congress allegation of snooping on Rahul Gandhi, saying the opposition party was bereft of issues and raking up non-issues.
"This is absolutely an atrocious charge by Congress and there is nobody snooping. Congress people don't know where Rahul is. So, how we will snoop. That's not the issue," Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters.
He was reacting to a query over the Congress accusing the Narendra Modi government of carrying out "political espionage" and "snooping" following the visit of a Delhi Police team to Gandhi's residence.
"It's a routine police procedure to which they (Congress) are over-reacting. I think Congress has lost the plot, and they are bereft of any issue. They have no public issue and therefore they are raising such issues which are non-issues," the senior BJP leader asserted.