At least their phones work!

 

 

Call a Tamil Nadu politician or a senior official these days to speak on any issue and the standard response that one receives is, “Please come in person”. The fear of telephone-tapping has everyone in its grip and even the Chief Secretary of the state has not been spared!

When one newspaper carried the transcript of an alleged “tapped conversation” last week between L.K. Tripathy, the chief secretary of Tamil Nadu, and S.K. Upadhyay, additional director general of police and director vigilance and anti-corruption of Tamil Nadu, no one was particularly shocked.

The same newspaper had come out with a report a few months ago on the “telephone numbers being tapped” by the Intelligence Bureau, including the mobile number of Dr Ramadoss of the PMK. This had triggered off to a huge uproar in the state Assembly and the issue was debated amid much heat but at that time the Government had refuted the charge that phones were being tapped by the intelligence agencies.

As per the newly published transcript – of the alleged conversation between Tripathy and Upadhyay – the discussion was on the politically sensitive issue of the Kodanadu Estate, aproperty in which AIADMK supremo, Jayalalitha has a sizeable stake.

The government, as expected, has denied the charges and said that legal proceedings would be initiated against the newspaper that carried the report. But Makkal TV, owned and run by the PMK, and Jaya TV of the AIADMK were quick to broadcast the tapes of the alleged conversation during the course of which the chief secretary is heard to be giving instructions on a case pertaining to Jayalalitha and expressing his personal displeasure with a junior level officer serving in the state vigilance department. When the issue figured in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, the Karunanidhi government ordered an inquiry into the allegations and appointed a retired judge for the job, but the Opposition parties protested against the move by staging a walkout from the House.

Suspicion over the phone-tapping issue continues to linger, even in the top echelons of the state government, though everyone is tight-lipped on the issue. Officials are now afraid to even ‘talk’ to their friends.

“Already, with the arrival of RTI, officials have virtually stopped writing file notings and with this suspicion of eavesdropping on their phone calls, everyone in the government is miserable,” a senior IAS official told TSI.

Just a few months ago, following a sensational expose in a newspaper about the fact that his phone was being tapped by the intelligence agencies, R.Radhakrishnan, a senior MDMK leader, had sent out legal notices to the Tamil Nadu home secretary, the director-general of Tamil Nadu police and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). seeking an explanation why his telephone was being tapped. The political leader is, however, yet to receive any response from any quarters to the multiple notices that he sent out. With nobody in authority opting to come clean on the matter, government officials and political leaders in are understandably running scared. One official quoted, "At least their phones work!" We caught the dripping sarcasm, Sir!