Bandi Sanjay’s Baseless Allegations on Phone Tapping: A Political Diversion

After losing out the BJP State President post which he was aspiring, Bandi Sanjay is more insecure of being out news and has become a mockery when his own party leaders like Etala Rajender have questioned his theatrics in open which has weakened not only his leadership traits but also exposed his incapability as MoS Home.

Minister of State for Home Affairs, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, has recently made sensational claims against the former K. Chandrashekhar Rao-led Telangana government, alleging that it engaged in the illegal tapping of phone conversations of senior Union leaders, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president JP Nadda.

While such accusations may sound dramatic and politically charged, a closer look at the legal framework and institutional safeguards around phone interception exposes the sheer implausibility of these allegations. To begin with, Amit Shah is not only the Union Home Minister but also the head of the nation’s premier intelligence and security agencies, including the Intelligence Bureau (IB), Research & Analysis Wing (RAW), and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). These agencies are responsible for national security and maintain constant vigilance over any activity that could compromise the integrity of high-ranking Union officials.

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The very suggestion that a State government could successfully tap the Union Home Minister’s phone without detection is not only logically flawed but borders on the absurd. Under the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, and the rules framed thereunder, phone tapping can only be authorised after a strict legal process.

The Review Committee for Phone Tapping operates under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), which is headed by the Union Home Minister himself. Every phone interception request must pass through multiple levels of scrutiny and must be approved by the Home Secretary, who reports directly to Amit Shah. There is a norm that the Review Committee shall meet once in 2 months to assess the legality and the continued necessity of interception orders.

This means that any legally sanctioned interception of a Union Minister’s phone would necessarily be known to, and authorised by, the central government. Furthermore, telecom service providers play a critical role in the technical execution of any authorised phone tapping. They are legally bound to cooperate only when presented with official orders. If such orders were issued, the telecom operators would be fully aware of the target and the authorising authority.

In the hypothetical scenario that Amit Shah’s own phone were being intercepted, it is inconceivable that the telecom provider knowing the number belongs to the Union Home Minister would not alert the MHA or the Minister’s office. Given these robust safeguards, Bandi Sanjay’s statement appears to be a politically motivated attempt to grab headlines rather than a credible security concern. The idea that a state government could bypass the Union Home Ministry’s systems, deceive the telecom operators, and successfully tap the phones of the country’s highest ranking security official and the national party president JP Nadda all without detection is highly unrealistic.

Such rhetoric serves no constructive purpose. Instead, it risks undermining public trust in the integrity of national security institutions and the checks and balances system designed to prevent such abuses. Allegations of this magnitude, if unsubstantiated, weaken democratic discourse and distract from genuine governance issues that require attention.

Bandi Sanjay’s charges against KT Rama Rao are not supported by procedural reality nor by common sense. If anything, they reveal a deliberate attempt to politicise the issue of surveillance to tarnish political opponents. After losing out the BJP State President post which he was aspiring, Bandi Sanjay is more insecure of being out news and has become a mockery when his own party leaders like Etala Rajender have questioned his theatrics in open which has weakened not only his leadership traits but also exposed his incapability as MoS Home.

As a Parliamentarian, the BJP former president has failed to deliver any impressive speech in the Lok Sabha on any relevant issue and has not carried out any notable development for his Karimnagar Parliament constituency. To be in the news, Bandi chose the phone tapping issue which could give him some media attention and presence.

As MoS Home, his statement that phone tapping is only for addressing the Naxals’ concern proves that he has gained no knowledge even in his own department of Ministry . He should learn that in NDA Government, Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba of the Ministry of Home Affairs released a Gazette exercising of powers conferred by sub section (1) of Section 69 of Information Technology Act 2000, read with rule 4 of IT Act authorising the agencies such as Intelligence Bureau , Narcotics Control Bureau, Enforcement Directorate , Central Board of Direct Taxes, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence , Central Bureau of Investigation , National Investigation Agency , Cabinet Secretariat , Directorate of Signal Intelligence and Commissioner of Police Delhi with powers of Interception, Monitoring and Decryption of any Information.

BRS working president KT Rama Rao challenging a legal suit against Bandi Sanjay shows the former Minister’s belief over constitution which is the temple of democracy, while Bandi challenging to come to religious shrine with family members and taking a oath by pouring turmeric water on the body in public explains a regular desperate act of politics of identity crisis making the whole phone tapping issue a nonsensical prolonged web series in Telangana to hide the fallouts of administration of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and his friendly T BJP leaders.

 

(Krishank, Official Spokesperson, Bharat Rashtra Samithi)