Tuesday, January 10 2006 16:14 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Guwahati: Asserting telephone tapping without real substantial reason was unethical and illegal, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Pramod Mahajan today (Jan 10, 2006) saw a 'lot of strength' in Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh's allegation that his phone was tapped.

"There is substance in his (Amar Singh's) allegation. He is not talking nonsense. Already three persons have been arrested and half a dozen CDs of his phone recordings are with the police," Mahajan told reporters here.

"Under the Indian Telegraph Act tapping is allowed only in the public interest. But what is public interest has not been defined. Taking this seriously, the Government in the national interest should come out with a definition of what is 'public interest' so that peoples privacy is not disturbed," the former Information Minister pointed out.

"Militants, criminals, anti-national elements phones could be tapped in national interest, but it was illegal to monitor the phones of political and business rivals, bureaucrats and journalists," he added.

Asked if liberalisation of the telecom sector was leading to the increased allegations of phone tapping, Mahajan said, "Liberalisation has nothing to do with it. 99.9 per cent of the telecom workers are Indian. Besides, ministers use only MTNL connections and that too, restricted area telephone service (RATS) for communication."

Singh had recently alleged that his phone was tapped by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Central Government and moved the Supreme Court for a judicial probe into the controversy.