Tapping and bugging is order of the day in UPA: BJP

"It is obvious that this government is operating under the shadow of suspicion, doubt and conspiracy," BJP chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said reacting to a newspaper report which said Chairman of Central Board of Excise and Customs S Dutt Mojumder`s phone as well as those of his relatives were tapped.

"It is indeed a sorry state of affairs as it appears that this government is adrift. The left hand does not know what the right hand is doing and the BJP has started the reverse counting of this regime," he said.

Prasad said even as the heat generated over the alleged bugging of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee`s office is yet to die-down, the issue of alleged phone tapping of CBEC Chairman points out that the government is now "spying" on its officers and not sparing them too.

On the issue of alleged "bugging" of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee`s office, he said, "It seems the FM did not have faith on the Home Minister and thus chose to write to Prime Minister. After ten months his secret letter is made public in order to defame either the FM or the PM or both as it indicates that someone seems to be conspiring to defame both".

"It appears that there may be some vacancy at the top slot."

On reported clarifications given by the government in this regard terming the phone tapping as "the handiwork of some rogue elements in the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence", Prasad said, "It is indeed a sorry state of affairs in the UPA".

In a jibe at the UPA government, BJP MP Shahnawaz Hussain said there was hardly any leader in the country left whose phone was not being tapped.

"Today when Congress members are spying on their own people, I feel that there is hardly any leader left whose phone is not being tapped," the BJP spokesperson said while addressing a public meeting in Bharatpur, Rajasthan.

The UPA government appeared to be in a mood for a "direct confrontation" with public and has made its intention clear by "oppressing" peaceful agitation against corruption at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi, Husain alleged.

He claimed that Emergency-like situation prevailed in the country and phones of those who are raising voice against corruption are being tapped.

Targeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the BJP leader said that "his silence speaks for itself that he is not clean".

BJP state president Arun Chaturvedi and MLA Digambar Singh were among others present at the meeting organised by the party`s district unit.