Congress demands PMO explain 'Snoopgate 2', BJP says non-issue

New Delhi The Congress on Sunday demanded an explanation from the Prime Ministers Office on why the police were seeking details about its vice president Rahul Gandhi even as the BJP accused the opposition party of making an issue out of a routine securityrelated inquiry The Congress was also set to raise the issue in parliament on MondayTerming the incident Snoopgate 2 Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said the prime minister needed to explain why the government needed details of a person protected by the Special Protection Group SPG PMOIndia needs to explain why it needs details of a person protected by the SPG All his movements are recorded by SPG he tweetedRahul Gandhi File picPolice sought telephone numbers addresses of Rahul Gandhis associates and friends Delhi Police need to clarify why this info was needed he said Tharoor said Original Snoopgate involved misuse of Gujarat government machinery for surveillance of a woman Snoopgate2 involves misuse of police versus opponentsDelhi Police personnel visited Rahul Gandhis residence last week and also sought details about his height and colour of eyes and hair Party spokesperson Anand Sharma said the party would raise the issue in parliament Addressing reporters at the Congress headquarters in New Delhi he said the Narendra Modi government has much to answer when it comes to right of privacy of citizensThey are now trying to do it everywhere what was happening in one state Both Modi and Amit Shah are now here It is not confined to one person It is much deeper The practice that they had adopted in Gujarat they want to carry it out now every where he saidSharma who has alleged in a newspaper interview that phones of senior leaders are being tapped and that they are under surveillance backed his statement saying letters are not sent for phone tapping to political leaders judges and others It can be proved only if the prime minister home minister give letters to opposition leaders regarding their phone tappingThe Bharatiya Janata Party accused the Congress of trying to politicize the issues In Hyderabad union Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said Prime Minister Modi or Home Minister Rajnath Singh were in no way involved in the police trying to find out details about Rahul GandhiAccording to Delhi Police there was a securityrelated check and inquiry at the house of the Congress leader Neither the prime minister nor home minister or government are in any way involved in this routine check and security drill by the security apparatus of Delhi Police Naidu told reporters He also claimed that the same thing happened to him when he was in the oppositionThey came and gave a questionnaire and asked me to sign that also When I became minister there was some inquiry They said it is a routine check and we have to do it because we are giving you Zplus security They asked who are frequent visitors any suspicion about anybody who is roaming around your house do you notice anybody who is not familiar he saidThe minister said same questions were put to senior parliamentarian LK Advani BJP president Amit Shah and even Prime Minister Modi earlier We should not make issues out of nonissues and create controversies simply because some questioning has been done Naidu said During Congress regime there used to be surveillance on telephones and lots of such complaints were received he allegedOn Saturday the Congress had condemned Delhi Polices unnecessary and weird enquiries about Rahul Gandhi and termed it political espionage This kind of political espionage snooping surveillance and intrusion in political opponents life may be Gujarat model but not Indian model party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said referring to Modis oftquoted Gujarat model of development