Date:06/01/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/01/06/stories/2006010606921200.htm

National

Make contents of phone recording public: Lalu

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI : Railway Minister and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad on Thursday added a new twist to the ongoing phone tapping controversy by demanding that the recorded conversations of Samajwadi Party leaders, including Amar Singh, be made public.

Mr. Prasad told media persons that the nation should know what was in the tapes. Congress president Sonia Gandhi was "wrongly being blamed" for the phone tapping, he said.

He also came out in support of yoga guru Ramdev. "MNCs are opposed to people like me and Ramdev. They are against those who propagate indigenous causes."

However, in a lighter vein, he went on to say that so long as the herbal medicines added years to one's life, it hardly mattered whether they contained bones of "manav ya danav'' (human beings or devils).