JOIN USShoe-size matters for a security profile! Finance Minister Arun Jaitley reminded the Congress that the police inquiring about shoes while profiling Rahul Gandhi might sound funny, but it had led to the identification of a former prime minister.
The indication was towards Rajiv Gandhi, who was assassinated by the LTTE in Sriperumbudur in 1991.
The Modi government on Monday hurled back statistics and a piece of evidence to silence the Congress, which had accused the Centre of using the police to spy on party vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
Jaitley, who intervened after leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge raised the issue of “political espionage” on Rahul, was perhaps responding to Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad raising doubts over a Delhi police official trying to ascertain personal details of the Gandhi scion.
“Why does the police need to know his shoe size? Is this the sort of spying this government plans against political opponents?” Azad had asked.
In retort, Jaitley said in the Lower House, “When a former prime minister was assassinated, his identification was made possible by knowledge of his shoe size. It has relevance in security.”
Blown to pieces, Rajiv’s body was identified by the pair of “LOTTO” shoes he was wearing.
Requesting the Congress not to “trivialise” a security matter, Jaitley said if they were to snoop, they would do it on the sly.
Earlier, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu said 526 influential persons—including former prime minister Manmohan Singh, President Pranab Mukherjee, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and senior BJP leaders such as former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L K Advani, Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah—have been profiled.
Sonia was profiled thrice, including in 2004 and 2012, he said while giving out a list of VIPs who were asked questions about themselves.
The process of police inquiry started in 1947, and became formalised a decade later in the form of a proforma of questionnaire the police were supposed to fill. Naidu said he too had been subjected to probing questions by cops, like those about frequent visitors to his house, any suspicious movements, and telephone calls that raised eyebrows.
Attempting to embarrass the Congress further, Naidu said the party was scoring one “self goal” after another, recalling a bugging attempt at Pranab Mukherjee’s office when he was finance minister during the UPA regime.