Narayankaji Shrestha of UCPN (Maoist) demanded that parliament investigate the controversy and bring out who all are behind the tapping of telephone conversations of late. [break]
In the audiotape published and broadcast by various communications media someone thought to be Mahara asks a Chinese man for Rs 500 million for buying 50 votes in parliament to elect Pushpa Kamal Dahal as prime minister.
"As some foreign embassies in Kathmandu are reportedly involved in tapping telephone conversations and distributing the tapes, the matter is directly related to the issue of our national security and sovereignty. Therefore, it needs to be seriously investigated by parliament," Shrestha said at a House meeting on Tuesday.
He refuted reports about Mahara´s conversation with the Chinese man. "Mahara has not talked at all to any official of the Chinese Communist Party or Chinese government," he said.
He argued that the issue of some unknown entities secretly tapping phone conversations is more serious than the contents made public. "Everyone knows that new technologies make it possible to create such audiotapes combining pieces and parts of conversations held in different contexts," he said.
He claimed that the audiotape scandal was made public by some quarters as one of their strategies for blocking the Maoist party from heading the new government.
"This has come at a time when the chances of our chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal winning the election became high while his contender´s prospects were dwindling," he said.
While Shrestha demanded a probe into the tapping, other lawmakers said the content of the audiotape was equally serious.
Laxman Ghimire of Nepali Congress (NC) and Pradeep Gyawali of CPN-UML termed Shrestha´s claims contradictory.
Ghimire said Maoist leaders need not worry about Mahara´s personal confidentiality if the tape is a fabricated one. He claimed that the voice in the tape, the circumstances and the statements given by Mahara afterward lead one to believe the conversation did take place.
"This has become public at a time when floor-crossings by lawmakers took place and political leaders claimed that horse-trading was attempted," Ghimire said. He said the person who was ready to provide Rs 500 million could be a drug or gold smuggler. "He became ready to do so thinking that he could derive benefit after helping a prime minister."
Dr Ram Sharan Mahat of NC said the issue is clearly a case of international money laundering.
Gyawali said the issue is very serious whether the audiotape is genuine or fabricated. He urged Maoist leaders to clarify the matter. He argued that the Maoist leaders should either clearly say that it was all fabricated with an intention of trapping Mahara or object on the ground that a private conversation was intercepted.
"But there can´t be two truths. It [Maoists´ claims] sounds contradictory," he said.
CP Mainali of CPN (ML) claimed that the Maoists had tried to persuade his party to agree to a similar deal but he had refused. Claiming that Mahara himself had indirectly admitted the phone conversation, Mainali said one can´t rule out the authenticity of the conversation.
Chitra Bahadur KC, Dr Prakash Chandra Lohani and Chandra Dev Joshi, among others, demanded a judicial probe into the matter.
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