Row in Rajasthan Assembly as state minister makes phone-tapping charges against BJP government

A row erupted in the Rajasthan Assembly on Friday after a video went viral of state Cabinet Minister Kirodi Lal Meena alleging that his phone was being tapped by his own Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state, The Indian Express reported.

The Opposition Congress demanded that Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma resign in view of the allegations, and also staged a walkout during the session. However, the state government described the allegation as baseless.

Hours earlier, a video of Meena making the allegations during an event at a temple in Jaipur on Thursday was circulated widely online, PTI reported. The date when the video was recorded was not clear.

“I got 50 fake station house officers arrested,” the Hindustan Times quoted Meena as saying in the video. “I raised the demand to cancel the 2021 sub-inspector recruitment exam conducted by the Staff Selection Commission over alleged paper leak but the government did not pay heed.”

Meena claimed that the BJP government acted like the previous Congress regime under then Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot in the state.

He added that he was “unfazed” even though the Criminal Investigation Department was tailing him and tapping his phone. “I don’t do anything illegal, so I am not scared, nor will I bend before anyone,” the minister said. “I will always speak…

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