Governor Tamilisai Soundarajan accuses Telangana govt of phone tapping

Hyderabad: In a clear political attack on the State government, Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on Wednesday leveled serious allegations including of her phones being tapped and that the TRS was ‘dragging’ the Raj Bhavan into the MLA poaching case, apart from indirect accusations against the Chief Minister. The Governor had suddenly called for a press conference, […]

Hyderabad: In a clear political attack on the State government, Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on Wednesday leveled serious allegations including of her phones being tapped and that the TRS was ‘dragging’ the Raj Bhavan into the MLA poaching case, apart from indirect accusations against the Chief Minister.

The Governor had suddenly called for a press conference, even as there was a controversy over her delaying approval to six bills passed unanimously by the Assembly. The Telangana Universities Common Recruitment Board Bill-2022 in particular was pending with her for nearly two months now, but the press conference came after the Telangana All University Students Joint Action Committee protested and called for a Chalo Raj Bhavan rally.

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Denying that she was deliberately holding the Bills, she said she was ‘assessing and analysing’ the Bills. She said she had received six Bills from the State government and as the Universities Common Recruitment Board Bill was important, she had taken it up first and was ‘analyzing the pros and cons’, she said, adding that the Bill was pending with her for about one month and eight days.

However, her reactions turned political while responding to a query on the JAC’s Chalo Raj Bhavan call. She said the JAC was free to visit Raj Bhavan anytime and discuss the issue.

“Student JAC leaders are free to meet me. Unlike Pragathi Bhavan, Raj Bhavan is open for everyone,” she said.

Continuing in the same vein, Soundararajan alleged that the TRS was dragging the Raj Bhavan into the MLA poaching case. Charging that a Twitter handle of the TRS had alleged that her former ADC Tushar Basan was involved in the covert operation, she said the Tushar mentioned in the audio and video clips that came out was a different person.

At the same time, intriguingly, she accused the State government of tapping her phones, saying that her former ADC’s name “figured in the covert operation videos” because the State government was tapping her phones.

“I fear that my phones are being tapped. Or else, how can they know about my ADC’s whereabouts. I am not afraid of all this. I have nothing to hide, so I am not afraid of phone tapping,” she stated. However, she did not elaborate on how tapping her phone and the allegations were connected.

Responding to another query on why she had not cleared a file on releasing 75 prisoners during Independence Day celebrations in August this year, she said: “All of them are life convicts. How can I release them?”

Soundarajan also accused the State government of not respecting the office of the Governor, saying that though she had written a letter asking the government to send Education Minister P Sabitha Indra Reddy to the Raj Bhavan to discuss the Universities Common Recruitment Board Bill, the Minister had so far not “reported to her”.

“I have written a letter to the government long ago. But the Education Minister claims that she has not received any letter so far. Does it take so much of time to reach a letter from Raj Bhavan to Pragati Bhavan?” she said, once again taking the name of the Chief Minister’s official residence in the matter.