Govt. tapping Opposition leaders' phones: Mulayam

LUCKNOW, APRIL 1. The Samajwadi Party chief, Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav, today alleged that telephones of all the main Opposition party leaders were being ``bugged'' on the instruction of the Prime Minister's Office in the wake of the Tehelka expose.

``I have got the list of all such leaders and a definite information in this regard and will make it public at an opportune time,'' Mr. Yadav told a press conference here. Terming the alleged tapping of phones as an attack on the privacy and freedom of political leaders, he said the exercise began after the Opposition parties cornered the NDA Government on the Tehelka tapes both inside and outside Parliament.

Mr. Yadav charged a senior PMO official with pressurising the CBI to implicate Opposition leaders by framing charges against them and demanded his removal.

On raids on the offices and residential premises of custom officials, he said the Government's action was delayed and was intended to divert people's attention from the Tehelka expose which, he said, had rattled it.

On the stock market scam, Mr. Yadav demanded the resignation of both the SEBI chairman and the RBI Governor. Assailing the Government's Exim policy, he said the BJP Government had sold the country to multinationals.

``The policy is against the interest of farmers and the youth of the country,'' he said, adding ``we are heading for economic slavery.''

On the CBI charges against the Congress president, Ms. Sonia Gandhi's private secretary, Mr. Vincent George, he said his party had raised the issue in 1982 itself but nothing was done as the BJP and Congress were hand in glove at that time. He said he was seeking legal opinion to take action against those who had levelled ``baseless'' charges on the purchase of state-of-art Sukhoi fighter aircraft for the Indian Air Force during his tenure as the Defence Minister.

- PTI

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