NEW DELHI, Aug 10, Reuter: One of India’s most respected opposition politicians said on Wednesday he would resign as Chief Minister of Southern Karnataka State after accepting responsibility for illegal wiretaps by his administration.
The announcement by veteran Janata Party figure Ramakrishna Hegde comes as a setback for the new national front alliance formed to try to oust Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in national elections due by the end of 1989.
The telephone tapping . . . has caused great anguish to me and is also causing embarrassment to our party, Hegde told a news conference in New Delhi, where he has been attending national front meetings.
Janata General Secretary Harikesh Bahadur accused Gandhi’s Congress (I) Party of creating the scandal to tarnish the alliance.
Hegde has become a victim of conspiracy, said Bahadur.
The scandal broke on Tuesday when the Pro Government times of India newspaper reported that wiretaps had been placed on Journalists, politicians and a businessman in Karnataka, a corstal state of 40 million people in southwest India,
The politicians were mainly Janata Party rivals of Hegde. Hegde, 60, said he ordered the wiretaps halted as soon as he heard of them.
Even though I had nothing to do with this undesirable practice, I have to assume moral responsibility for it, he said, adding the wiretaps had been authorized by the state’s most senior civil servant, the chief secretary.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 19, 1988
