Jeremy Page in Delhi
April 26, 2010

The Indian Government is to answer accusations today that it tapped ministers’ phones, including one involved in a growing money-laundering scandal surrounding the Indian Premier League cricket tournament.

As tens of millions tuned in to watch the IPL final last night, opposition parties were threatening to disrupt Parliament unless Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister, responded personally to allegations in a magazine last week that the State had eavesdropped on ministers’ calls. “This is turning out to be the biggest scandal,” said Rajiv Pratap Rudy, a spokesman for the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party. “Why is the Government silent? We will not accept anybody’s answer except the Prime Minister,” he said.

Lalit Modi, the flamboyant chairman of the IPL, was suspended late last night pending a ruling by the tournament’s governing council that could decide whether he remains in charge of the $4.13 billion (£2.69 billion) franchise he created three years ago.

The Government began an investigation into Mr Modi and the IPL last week after allegations of tax evasion, money laundering, kickbacks, match fixing and illegal betting in cricket’s most lucrative competition.

The scandal has already led Shashi Tharoor, a junior minister and former UN under-secretary-general, to resign. Sharad Pawar, the Agriculture Minister, and Praful Patel, the Civil Aviation Minister, have been linked with the events.

There have also been tax raids on an IPL team owned by Shah Rukh Khan, a Bollywood star, and on the offices of Sahara Group, a conglomerate owned by Subrata Roy, the billionaire.

The scandal now threatens to paralyse Parliament, just as the Government is trying to push through the budget and other key reform Bills, and faces protests over rising food prices.

The latest twist in the saga came when Outlook, a news magazine, reported that the Government had tapped telephone conversations involving four senior political figures since 2007.

It said that the National Technical Research Organisation, an intelligence agency, used new technology to monitor the calls. Among the exchanges said to be recorded were some between Mr Pawar and Mr Modi in the past fortnight, allegedly discussing deals done during the bidding process for IPL teams, it claimed.

The magazine said that the agency had also targeted Prakash Karat, a leader of the Communist Party of India, during a stand-off over an Indian-US nuclear deal in 2008.

Digvijay Singh, a Congress leader whose conversations were also allegedly monitored, said: “I don’t believe this story because Manmohan Singh’s Government cannot do such an unethical and illegal task.”

The Government has not officially denied the story, and the Prime Minister’s office said yesterday that it was looking into it.

The opposition has compared the Government’s alleged actions with those of Indira Gandhi when she imposed emergency rule from 1975 to 1977. L.K. Advani, the opposition leader, called for a cross-party parliamentary committee to investigate the allegations.

The drama in Parliament will be matched by today’s meeting of the 14-member IPL Governing Council. The Board of Control for Cricket in India, which owns the IPL, was widely expected to suspend Mr Modi and had an emergency meeting just before last night’s final. But he has made it clear that he will not go down without a fight, pointing out that one IPL Governing Council member has vested interests because he has a stake in an IPL team.

“People pressurising me to resign — I can tell you will not happen,” he tweeted on Saturday. “Let them remove me then.”

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