MOBILE PHONES ‘DANGEROUS THINGS’, SAYS MULAYAM

Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, whose alleged phone conversation with suspended IPS officer Amitabh Thakur had set off a controversy some time ago, on Saturday urged lawmakers and politicians to “prefer using landline phones over mobile phones.”

Terming mobile phones as ‘dangerous things’, Yadav said, “You never know who is recording a private conversation and leaking it selectively. Cell phones should be used sparingly and only in situations when landline phones are not available.”

Yadav said this while speaking at the book release function of ‘Weakest on earth, orphans of India’ penned by Amand Shukla and Poulomi Pavini. The book covers children who don’t have anybody to take care of them.

Talking about the condition of beggars in Uttar Pradesh, Yadav also made a rather tongue-in-cheek remark that “Delhi has more beggars than UP” even as he tasked chief minister Akhilesh Yadav to find a solution to end beggary and provide help to destitute children. He said he also planned to take up these issues with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Earlier, the chief minister said the UP government would reward parents who came forward to claim children they had abandoned due to “any problem.” He also said the state government would come up with a “big home for destitute kids” in the state capital.

Senior cabinet minister Shivpal Yadav said the Samajwadi Party would ensure the betterment of underprivileged children.

While the phone conversation with Thakur may have led Yadav to make the remark it is, however, not the first time that the former UP chief minister has mentioned phone tapping. In 2005 Yadav had accused the then Congress government at the centre of tapping his phones. Later, reacting to Mulayam’s comment on mobile phones, Thakur said: “I consider Sri Mulayam Singh’s statement, about not using mobiles for fear of tapping and its misuse, a completely retrograde and improper advice.”