Row over bugging devices found in Gadkari's home

Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Sunday dismissed as “highly speculative” reports about his official residence at 13 Teen Murti Lane in the national capital being bugged. 

It has already led to a controversy, with former prime minister Manmohan Singh demanding in Parliament an inquiry and explanation from the government.

Reports suggested that bugs had been planted in the bedroom of Gadkari’s house, and their recovery was “accidental”, but subsequently a debugging exercise was carried over the entire house. The reports also said the bugs recovered were of high quality and available only abroad, suggesting that western intelligence agencies might have carried out clandestine snooping.

A close aide of Gadkari’s said he was surprised to hear the news reports since Sunday morning, as he said the minister did not find any such thing till Friday evening, when he left for his home state of Maharashtra.
 Gadkari took to Twitter to say that the “reports in a section of the media about listening devices having been found at my New Delhi residence are highly speculative”.

The Delhi Police said they were not aware of the incident. “We have not received any complaint from Nitin Gadkari or anyone else till now.

 Reports in some sections of the media, that a listening device had been found in Gadkari’s house, are totally speculative,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) S B S Tyagi told a news agency. The reports also suggested that the house of another senior BJP leader, whose name was not revealed, had also been bugged.

The reports generated political heat, with the Congress demanding inquiry into them, and saying that they reflected lack of trust within the NDA.

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh told reporters at an Iftar hosted by Congress president Sonia Gandhi: “If ministers’ houses are bugged, it is not a good omen. It should be investigated. How can it happen? It should be explained by the government in power.”

Asking the NDA government to come clean on the issue, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said, “If reports of senior Cabinet minister Nitin Gadkari, also a former BJP president, being bugged are correct, they are indeed extremely serious. It reflects a certain lack of faith amongst ministerial colleagues and an absence of mutual trust.”

Senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, however, gave a different twist to the controversy. He was of the view that Gadkari might have been targeted by the previous UPA regime, since he was an important leader and enjoyed the confidence of the RSS.