Rahul Gandhi says PM Modi has his phone tapped, renews call for open debate on who is 'controlled by foreign powers'

Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi alleged on Friday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has his phone tapped, and renewed his challenge to the Prime Minister to a face-to-face debate. In a video the Congress posted on X, Gandhi offered no evidence for the surveillance claim, which the BJP has dismissed.

“The Prime Minister is aware of this because he has my phone tapped,” Gandhi said, in remarks that carried a timestamp of about 1:30 pm IST. According to the accounts of the video, he held up his phone and said the proof of his charges is on it. “The proof is in this phone, and the PM knows it since he taps my phone,” he said.

What Gandhi said

The surveillance claim came inside a longer repeat of the dare he has been issuing since early November. “I want to show the nation exactly who’s anti-national, exactly who’s controlled by whom, and since when,” Gandhi said. “Let him debate me on who is anti-national and who is controlled by foreign forces.”

He said the outcome would be decisive. “The moment he comes for an open debate, everybody will know who is being controlled by foreign powers,” he said, and added that the Prime Minister’s “political career will be over” if he agrees to debate. He read the Prime Minister’s silence on the offer as nervousness. “There’s a little fear in his mind, because he is no longer commenting about me,” Gandhi said.

Gandhi did not say who is tapping his phone, how he came to know of it, or what the material on the phone is. No technical finding or official record was offered with the video, and the claim stands as an allegation.

In the same session he also turned to his mother’s new book, Sonia Gandhi’s Belonging: A Journey of Love, saying criticism of it was helping sales. “The more you comment, the better it does,” he said.

How the challenge built up

Gandhi first posted the dare on X on Monday, November 2, asking Modi to “choose any stage, any venue and debate me: who is anti-national? Who has connections with foreign forces?” A day later he posted a video and an X poll asking whether young people wanted a Modi versus Gandhi debate, and tagged Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari, among others, asking them to persuade the Prime Minister. Congress leader Pawan Khera backed him at a press conference; we reported it here.

On November 8, Modi told security personnel at Karanpur in Bastar that “intellectual Naxals” had entered political parties, without naming anyone; our report on that speech has the detail. Gandhi answered on Monday, November 9, writing that his challenge stands, “any time, any place” (our story).

The debate challenge so far

1. Nov 2Gandhi challenges Modi on X to debate who is anti-national
2. Nov 3Gandhi posts a video and an X poll on the debate
3. Nov 8Modi tells security personnel in Bastar that intellectual Naxals have entered parties
4. Nov 9Gandhi: my challenge stands, any time, any place
5. Nov 12Amit Shah accepts the challenge and points to Parliament
6. Nov 13Gandhi alleges his phone is tapped and repeats the call

The government’s answer

The Centre’s reply has been that the forum for such an exchange is Parliament. Home Minister Amit Shah said on Thursday, November 12, that he accepted Gandhi’s challenge and told him to raise the issue of the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in the House. He said the Centre would call a special session if the Congress made a formal request. He had made the same offer on November 2 at Hyderabad, saying “we are ready to convene a special session of Parliament. Come for debate”; our report has his full remarks.

On the phone-tapping claim, BJP leaders were reported to have called it a publicity stunt and asked why Gandhi had not made the supposed evidence public or handed it to investigating agencies. No named BJP spokesperson or minister had been quoted on it at the time of writing, and neither Modi nor the Prime Minister’s Office had commented. Earlier, BJP leader Zafar Islam had dismissed the debate call by saying Gandhi’s “only expertise lies in making allegations”.

Why it matters

The exchange has become an argument about where the two sides will meet, more than about the charge. Gandhi wants a direct contest outside Parliament, with a judge the Prime Minister can pick. The government says the House is the place and that Congress has only to ask. Neither side has named a date, a venue or a format, so the argument has so far run entirely through posts, videos and speeches.

An allegation of surveillance of the Leader of the Opposition is a serious charge. Without a complaint, a document or a technical finding, it is not possible to test the claim. The BJP’s challenge that Gandhi should give his phone to investigators is, for now, the only route either side has pointed to for checking it.

The background is the dispute over the electoral rolls. The INDIA bloc has been campaigning against the Special Intensive Revision and against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, and the government has answered that infiltrators must be removed from the rolls. Our report on the Centre’s separate plan for a special session, on delimitation, is here.

What happens next

There is no scheduled debate. The things to watch are whether the Congress files the formal request for a special session that Shah has asked for, whether Gandhi gives any material to a court or an agency in support of the tapping claim, and whether Modi or the Prime Minister’s Office answers. Parliament has not been prorogued since the Monsoon Session ended on August 13, so a sitting can be called at short notice.