Thursday, January 5 2006 15:58 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Chennai: Amidst the phone-tapping row involving Samajwadi Party leaders, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa today (Jan 05, 2006) said she felt that her telephones were also being tapped by the Centre.

"I have so far refrained from making this public because I knew that there would be a flat denial by the Centre", she said in a statement after Amar Singh called on her at the state secretariat here today.

Now that Amar Singh had furnished 'solid proof' that the Centre had 'organised' the tapping of the telephone of an opposition political leader, there should be an immediate 'impartial inquiry' into the entire matter and a detailed investigation to uncover the conspiracy behind this was called for at once.

What was immediately required was that the responsibility had to be owned up at once by the Centre, Jayalalithaa said in the statement.

Terming the tapping 'shocking and outrageous', Jayalalithaa said it was shocking to see the level to which the Central Government "can sink in trying to settle scores with its political opponents".

"This is a most disgraceful and serious issue which clearly violates the basic guarantee of Freedom of Speech and Right to Life enshrined in the Constitution of India," the Chief Minister said.

"Political adversaries should be faced politically, that is, in electoral battles and not through this kind of 'surreptitious and underhand surveillance".

"It also raises the question that if this can happen to Amar Singh, it can happen to every opposition political leader in the country. Does it mean that all those who do not agree with the policies of the central government have to be treated as enemies and hounded as dreaded criminals," she asked.

The evidence (in Amar Singh's case) was "clinching and unassailable such matters were taking place with impunity in our country after the UPA Government assumed office. "It is time to put a stop to such nefarious and underhand practices which have no place in a democracy".