Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government has removed the Special Protection Group (SPG) from former prime minister Manmohan Singh’s security detail, NDTV reported.
Manmohan Singh, who was India’s prime minister from 2004 to 2014, will continue to enjoy Z plus security cover, one of the highest, to be given by one of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), preferably by the CRPF, the officials said on Monday, 26 August, PTI reported.
A statement issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs stated that a review of the present security cover is a “periodical and professional exercise based on threat perception that is purely based on professional assessment by security agencies.”
The former prime minister will continue to have an Z+ security cover, the statement added.
According to sources who are close to Singh quoted by NDTV, he is "personally not concerned about his security" and will abide by the decision taken by the government.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
The force of around 3,000 officers which earlier used to provide protection to prime ministers, former prime ministers and their families, will now only be providing protection for PM Narendra Modi, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, The Hindu reported.
In November 2018, Namita Bhattacharya, the foster daughter of late Atal Bihari Vajpayee, had written a letter to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) stating that the family does not want an SPG cover, saying that it is intrusive and leads to inconvenience for the public, reported The Times of India.
An official who had information about the matter told The Hindu that the government had been renewing Singh’s SPG force, along with that of his wife Gursharan Kaur, annually after he left the prime minister’s office in 2014. His daughters had previously given up the elite protection in 2014.
On 25 May, the government initiated a review which took three months and finished on Sunday, 25 August, the report added. The official further confirmed to The Hindu that Singh was informed about the removal of his SPG cover.
ABOUT THE SPG ACT, 1988
The SPG was set up in 1985 after the assassination of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi. Parliament passed the SPG Act in 1988, dedicating the group to protecting only the prime minister. At the time, the Act did not include former prime ministers. When VP Singh came to power in 1989, his government withdrew SPG protection given to his predecessor Rajiv Gandhi.
After Rajiv Gandhi's assassination in 1991, the SPG Act was amended to offer SPG protection to all former prime ministers and their families for at least 10 years.
The Atal Bihari Vajpayee government conducted a review of the SPG's functioning, and decided to withdraw the SPG protection given to former prime ministers PV Narasimha Rao, HD Deve Gowda and IK Gujral.
In 2003, the Vajpayee government again amended the SPG Act to bring the period of automatic protection down from 10 years to "a period of one year from the date on which the former prime minister ceased to hold office" and beyond one year based on the level of threat as decided by the general government.
(With inputs from PTI, The Hindu and NDTV)
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