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Regular-article-logo Saturday, 02 August 2025

LOVE TALK FINDS RIVALS ON SAME WAVELENGTH 

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FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT Published 29.11.00, 12:00 AM
New Delhi, Nov. 29 :    New Delhi, Nov. 29:  No phone sex, please. We're Indians. If there's one issue where the BJP and the CPM see eye to eye, it's putting an end to love chatter on the telephone as it's not part of our 'cultural heritage'. 'The telephone system should not be used for immoral advertisements,' parliamentary affairs minister Pramod Mahajan said in the Lok Sabha, amid much applause from even hardcore adversaries like the Congress and the CPM. V.V.S Murthi of the Telugu Desam raised the issue that the entire House, for a change, found relevant. 'All leading newspapers are now publishing tantalising advertisements for engaging in cosy chatter on the telephone. Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited, which is giving these numbers, is the real culprit,' Murthi said during Zero Hour. The Desam MP said he was worried at the 'degeneration' that was fast setting in among the children because of these 'tantalising' advertisements. 'When we are not at home, our children are calling up these numbers. You can have a sexual conversation in the name of a cosy chat,' Murthi added. 'This is home prostitution,' chipped in one of his colleagues from the Congress. 'It must immediately be stopped,' added CPM members. Murthi insisted that it was the Centre's liberalisation policy that was unleashing all the demons of 'cultural depravity'. 'This is not our cultural heritage,' thundered the MPs. Congress' Santosh Mohan Dev put in a snippet. 'I have heard some MPs also use the telephone numbers,' he remarked. Denouncing the 'cultural slide', MPs, cutting across party lines, demanded a response from Mahajan, who needed no prodding. 'Sushma Swaraj, as the information and broadcasting minister (in her earlier stint), had banned all such advertisements,' he pointed out. Sushma, Mahajan explained, had made an 'arrangement' to stop people from accessing these numbers. 'I'm highly offended by it. I also know that very often it is used by people outside this country,' he said. The MPs demanded action and Mahajan complied with an assurance. 'The government will explore all possibilities of taking action to ban these advertisements,' he said. Mahajan reeled off a series of measures the government can take to put an end to phone sex. 'First we will talk to the communications minister to see if it can be technologically stopped,' he said. Why not take legal action, asked the MPs. Yes, the government is ready to explore even that possibility. 'I will talk to the law ministry,' Mahajan promised. Former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar, the 'statesman' in the House, had to put in a word. 'I have heard that some of these numbers are circulated through parliamentary papers,' he interjected.    
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