CHENNAI: Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh on Thursday thanked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for taking a "good and reasonable" stand on the telephone tapping issue. He also urged the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government to ask West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to probe the case.

Shortly after discussing the issue with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, Mr. Singh told mediapersons that he was "highly grateful" to Dr. Singh for considering the issue with due seriousness.Recalling that he had suggested that an impartial probe could be done by three non-Congress Chief Ministers representing States in the northern, southern and eastern regions, Mr. Singh said if the Centre did not trust Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar or Ms. Jayalalithaa, it could ask Mr. Bhattacharjee to probe the case. He justified the demand on the ground that Mr. Bhattacharjee belonged to the Left camp, which had been "providing oxygen to the UPA Government to breathe."

Mr. Singh said he would shortly represent his case to the President, the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha and the Prime Minister, besides moving the Supreme Court. He alleged that a private detective had been paid Rs. 20 lakh a week to tap his telephone.To a query, he said he did not want a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the issue, as the central agency had become a tool of the ruling dispensation, irrespective of who was in power.

Asked if he would meet the Chief Ministers of the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled States also, Mr. Singh said he would do so if the need arose. He had also spoken to BJP leaders Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani. Denying that he was politicising the issue, he said the "politics of character assassination" put everyone in danger.

Mr. Singh did not meet Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leaders as the party held the Communications portfolio. He did not suspect the DMK's hand in the episode.

He accused the Congress of launching an attack against him because it could not gain a toehold in Uttar Pradesh

To a query, he said a third alternative had to be created on issue-based and value-based politics. Such an ideologically consistent secular alternative would not be possible without the Left parties.

Later, addressing a press conference, he said his party would raise the issue in Parliament. It would become a privilege issue if anybody tried to use the doctored version of the tape, he added.

Make tapes public: Lalu

In New Delhi, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad demanded that the recorded conversations of Samajwadi Party leaders, including Amar Singh, be made public.

Mr. Prasad told mediapersons that the nation should know what was in the tapes.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi was "wrongly being blamed" for the phone tapping, he said.

He also came out in support of yoga guru Ramdev. "MNCs are opposed to people like me and Ramdev. They are against those who propagate indigenous causes."

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