New Delhi, March 1
Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Friday said that the government had no role in the alleged phone tapping of Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley, and said it would consider a proposal to prohibit such a practice without the permission of the Chairman of the House.

"The government did not authorise anybody to intercept the telephone of the LOP," he said in a statement in the Upper House as all sections of the House cornered him over the issue.

Shinde said the government was investigating the matter and would come back to the House once it has gathered facts. When a member asked him by when the investigation would be completed, the minister said he could not give a time-frame.

He said what had been detected so far was "not the monitoring of telephone conversation, which is ordinarily called tapping, but accessing of the call data records (CDR)".

Raising the matter, BJP member M Venkaiah Naidu wondered how the tapping could be done without government permission. “There is something fishy... there is something more than what meets the eyes. How can you be sure that phone tapping did not take place?" he asked Shinde.

SP member Ramgopal Yadav also wondered as to why a constable required the call data records of a leader of Jaitley’s stature. “Who is behind it?” he said, adding that doubts have been expressed that the call data records of 100 leaders of both Houses have been taken out.

CPM leader Sitaram Yechury said his name was also in the list of those whose phones were tapped. Other members also participated in the debate and asked the government to thoroughly probe the matter.