Saamana, the Shiv Sena (UBT) mouthpiece, Wednesday said the phone-tapping incident — when Devendra Fadnavis was the Chief Minister of Maharashtra—is more serious than the one raging currently in Rajasthan.
An editorial in the paper read, “Currently, a phone-tapping case is raging in Rajasthan. The Gehlot government is facing allegations of tapping the phone of its own MLAs. This phone tapping is being investigated by the central agencies. The Chief Minister’s OSD has been summoned in the case. But Gehlot is not crying foul and alleging that there is a conspiracy to arrest him. Maharashtra phone-tapping is more serious than the Rajasthan one. In Maharashtra’s case, senior police officers were threatening MLAs and asking them to support Fadnavis. The police officers were keeping track of the movement of the MLAs and keeping a close eye on them.”
The editorial recalled that in the country, in 1998, Ramkrishna Hegde had to resign as the chief minister of Karnataka after a phone-tapping controversy erupted in the state. The paper also described phone-tapping as the “Gujarat pattern”. “The MVA government had taken stern steps to ensure that this Gujarat pattern does not take root in Maharashtra. In fact, Fadnavis should have emulated the MVA action,” the editorial said.
The paper added that former state home minister Anil Deshmukh, cabinet minister Nawab Malik and Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut were arrested despite the fact that there was no proof against them. “If Maharashtra’s phone-tapping incident is not being viewed seriously, then why was former Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay Pandey arrested by the central investigative agencies. The people want an answer to this,” the editorial read.
Criticising the promotion given to former Pune police commissioner Rashmi Shukla, Saamana said, “After his government came to power in Maharashtra, it withdrew cases against Rashmi Shukla regarding the tapping of phones of Opposition leaders. And now the government has promoted her as the State Director General of Police…From INS Vikrant Maha-scam to phone-tapping of Opposition leaders, all cases have been withdrawn and everyone — including Rashmi Shukla — have been given clean chit. Is this how a government should rule?”
