SP downplays incident, says it is routine

Notwithstanding the Congress’s charge of political espionage, the Samajwadi Party was on the same page with the BJP as both did not find anything unusual in the Delhi Police trying to ascertain information about Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.

“This is very regular so I didn’t take it seriously,” commented SP Rajya Sabha MP Naresh Agarwal without buying the Congress’s charge of the Narendra Modi government snooping on their leader Rahul.

BJP spokesperson Sudhangshu Trivedi said it is the Congress which is in the habit of mounting surveillance on their leaders as it was earlier reported that the North Block office of former finance minister Pranab Mukherjee was bugged during the previous UPA regime. “It is a routine exercise being carried out for years. If the Congress wants to make this a political issue, it shows its mentality that it considers itself above the law,” Trivedi told reporters.