PM should come clear on bugging issue: Advani

New Delhi: Senior BJP leader L K Advani on Thursday asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to come clear on the reported bugging of Pranab Mukherjee's office and took a dig at the 'intelligent' Finance Minister for believing that the substance found was a 'chewing gum'.

Terming it as a 'serious issue', Advani said had it been a small matter, Pranab Mukherjee would not have complained to Singh in this regard.

"I had publicly said in Parliament that if Pranab Mukherjee would not have been there in the government, I wonder how it would function. He is an intelligent person and hence I consider this a serious issue," he told a BJP rally.

The senior BJP leader said the NDA will raise the issue in Parliament during the forthcoming Monsoon session.

Advani maintained that in his letter Mukherjee had asked the Prime Minister for a 'secret investigation' into the suspected bugging of his office, indicating that this was a serious matter.

"There were adhesives found in 16 places but they said it was chewing gum. A small kid can come and paste chewing gum maybe in one or two places, but will he paste it in 16 places?" Advani asked.

The BJP Parliamentary Party chief did not spare the Prime Minister while taking digs at Mukherjee.

"The Prime Minister's case is different but I consider Pranab Mukherjee as being very intelligent. Hence, he should also consider the people of the country as intelligent. He should understand that the explanation given by those investigating that it was chewing gum will not be swallowed by anybody. Nobody will accept it," Advani said.

He insisted that the Prime Minister should place the whole truth behind this 'shameful act'.

Advani claimed that when he was a minister in the NDA government, there were many instances when he went to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and discussed the issues.

"I was in government for six years... (but) I did not write a single letter (to the PM)," Advani said.

Advani maintained that while some people are saying the industrial houses could have been bugging Mukherjee's office, others say those who have black money abroad wanted to know what was being done.