A fresh political controversy has broken out after Congress leader and Lok Sabha Opposition Leader Rahul Gandhi alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is having his phone tapped. “My mobile phone has evidence against the government,” he said, challenging PM Modi to a one-on-one public debate.
Rahul Gandhi also said such a discussion would expose alleged foreign influence in India, questions about national security and who was working in India’s interests. His comments have set off a political war between the Congress and BJP with ruling party dismissing phone tapping allegation and questioning repeated calls for a one on one debate by Rahul Gandhi.
Rahul Gandhi made these latest remarks during an ‘Ask Me’ interactive session on Instagram where he responded to questions and discussed the political issues he wanted to put before people. During the session, he challenged PM Modi again and said that the proof of all his allegations is in his phone which is tapped by him (Prime Minister).
“The proof of all my allegations is in my phone which is tapped by Prime Minister,” Rahul said. He added that only a direct debate will allow country to understand what issues he has been raising and what allegations are being levelled against foreign influence and national loyalty.
Rahul Gandhi explained what he thought a one-on-one debate would reveal who was allegedly controlled by foreign powers and who could be described as anti-national; that he knew when such alleged activities started and more details were available on his phone.
These are Rahul Gandhi’s allegations not something we have independently established through claims made during Instagram session. But the remarks have given another dimension to political confrontation between Congress and BJP.
Rahul Gandhi’s challenge to Modi isn’t new. The Congress leader has been demanding an open public debate on important questions about government, Opposition and India’s political direction since long that it should be put before citizens directly.
In a video message earlier he was said to have asked PM Modi where the debate will take place and even who should moderate or judge it (in a pointed suggestion Rahul named RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and industrialist Gautam Adani).
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐞-𝐨𝐧-𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐛𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐚 𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐢 𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢-𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥. https://t.co/lhcxKdv6ph
— Congress (@INCIndia) November 13, 2026
Rahul Gandhi also said that several big issues should be brought on the table in the proposed discussion India’s financial system, the US trade deal or ongoing US trade deal, Adani controversy and Jeffrey Epstein case.
By bringing them together the Congress leader wanted to focus debate around economic policy, political accountability, international relations and alleged connections of influential people. His demand comes as political differences continue over allegations of foreign influence and national security.
The BJP has rejected Rahul Gandhi’s latest remarks strongly. Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya hit out at the Congress leader in a post on social media and said he was doing dirty politics, Rahul Gandhi was not fit to debate Prime Minister Modi and making allegations without putting them in proper political forums was an old pattern of his. He also dismissed the phone tapping claim saying it was another attempt by Congress leader to create controversy.
Other senior BJP leaders have also questioned Rahul Gandhi’s repeated demand for direct debate. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Union Home Minister Amit Shah say Parliament is already the right place to discuss important national issues.
Shah has challenged Rahul Gandhi to raise his allegations in Lok Sabha and put up his case before elected representatives. The BJP believes that Opposition should use parliamentary proceedings to question government instead of repeatedly demanding a separate public debate.
Rahul Gandhi’s latest phone-tapping allegation has also brought back the Pegasus spyware controversy of 2021. Then too, the Congress leader had alleged that his phones were being tapped and accused Modi government of using Israeli-developed Pegasus spyware to spy on Opposition leaders, journalists and others.
The controversy became a major political issue with questions over privacy, surveillance, national security and misuse of power by the government coming up.
In 2022 a Supreme Court appointed technical committee examined 29 mobile phones as part of the investigation into Pegasus allegations. The committee said it found malware on five devices but could not establish that it was Pegasus spyware.
The Supreme Court also said there was no conclusive evidence that Pegasus had been found on the devices examined. The report did not establish which phone-tapping allegation Rahul Gandhi has now made against PM Modi.
The latest exchange underlines how much the ruling BJP and the Congress are still at odds over questions of political accountability, surveillance and national security. Rahul Gandhi’s demand for a direct debate has once again put under scrutiny whether the two leaders will confront each other’s allegations in public the Congress leader says his phone has evidence to back his claims but the BJP has dismissed the allegations and asked him to bring them up in Parliament.
There is no one-on-one debate between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi yet announced. The claim of phone tapping too is only an allegation not an independently established finding so questions about the evidence and verification remain at the heart of the political controversy.
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