Ruckus in Karnataka Assembly: Is govt snooping on Governor, asks BJP as Congress claims Gehlot receiving 'instructions' from Delhi

Bengaluru: The Opposition BJP on Wednesday accused the Congress government of snooping on Lok Bhavan after Law Minister HK Patil said that Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot was receiving instructions from New Delhi over phone.

This rocked the Assembly during a discussion on the motion of thanks to the Governor’s address.

The issue came up when senior BJP lawmaker S Suresh Kumar recalled the proceedings from January 2011 when then Governor HR Bharadwaj laid his speech to the joint session of the legislature when then Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah asked him not to deliver the address.

“At whose behest did the then Governor lay his address? Isn't that a precedent?” Kumar said, buttressing his point that Governors in the past, too, did not read full speeches.

Responding to this, Patil said: “We'll have to talk about how phone calls come from Delhi and the Governor is made to leave from here.”

The Opposition latched on to this. “Is the government tapping phones?” Suresh Kumar asked. “Is the Lok Bhavan’s phone being tapped? The law minister has said this earlier, too. He should explain,” BJP’s V Sunil Kumar said.

IT/BT Minister Priyank Kharge intervened and charged that phone calls also come from Keshava Krupa, the Karnataka headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). To this, Sunil Kumar said that Congress gets phone calls from Italy, a reference to top leader Sonia Gandhi’s nativity.

Suresh Kumar, a former law minister, insisted that Patil’s statement pointed to something insidious.

“He has repeated his claim that calls come from Delhi to Lok Bhavan. This means that the government is tapping phones,” he said.

Patil retorted that the Ministry of Home Affairs, which manages gubernatorial affairs, should have clarified his allegation. “They (BJP) accept that Bharadwaj listened to Siddaramaiah. But they can’t digest it when I say that (Gehlot) listens to the Centre,” he said.

Leader of the Opposition R Ashoka also went after the Congress government over Patil’s statement.

Priyank said there was no logic in the debate. “The Governor is acting like the Centre's puppet. That’s what (Patil) means,” he said.

Suresh Kumar urged Patil not to set a bad example by casting aspersions on constitutional offices.