You don't tap phones when someone is threatened: Salman Khurshid

External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on Saturday criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi on the recent snooping issue.

Khurshid asked, “The whole thing about snooping is that, it is sad and somewhat ridiculous, that the family wanted to snoop on their daughter. Don’t they have faith in her? And, is this the kind of protection available now?

“Whenever someone is threatened, or whose life is in danger, then they are normally given someone to accompany them. But, you don’t tap their phone,” he added.

Referring to the 2002 Gujarat riots for which Modi has been repeatedly pilloried, Khurshid said, “I think there is a long story here; there is a lot of material here. I think we are getting agonized over the issue, which is about dignity of the girl, privacy, rights of an individual and about a system, which has killed hundreds of people in riots, for which there is still not full accountability.

“This is irony, that we can become worried about one element (snooping), when there is a larger element (the events in Gujarat), which require answers,” the minister added.

“It is wrong if Modi is involved. And it is indeed clear, that snooping was done on the behest of Modi,” Khurshid said.

Khurshid was giving his reactions on an alleged taped conversation between former Gujarat home minister Amit Shah and Gujarat police officer G L Singhal aired by news portals Cobrapost and Gulail, Shah was instructing Singhal to closely monitor the movements of the woman referred to in the report as "Madhuri", which is not her real name.

Shah, who is currently heading the BJP election campaign in Uttar Pradesh, is alleged to have misused his powers and the state police machinery for the illegal surveillance of a young woman in August 2009 at the behest of his "saheb".