The central government on Friday stripped off the Special Protection Group security to the Gandhian family. As per the reports, only Prime Minister Narendra Modi will get SPG security now on. Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will now be guarded by CRPF Z+ security cover instead.
The decision was taken at a high-level meeting of the Home Ministry today. The move came after multiple security agencies carried out a threat perception assessment and found there was no direct threat to them.
In August, the government had stripped of the SPG cover given to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He is now given Z-plus category security cover.
What is Special Protection Group?
The Indian Special Protection Group (SPG) is “an armed force of the Union for providing proximate security to the Prime Minister of India and former Prime Ministers of India and members of their immediate families wherever in the world they are.” It was formed in 1988 by an act of the Parliament of India.
From carrying out anti-sabotage checks to sanitizing the venues, the SPG is responsible for the zero-error security of the PM.
When and why was SPG set up?
After the assassination of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1984, the government felt the need to raise a dedicated force, which could be tasked with the protection of the prime minister. As a result of this, the SPG was set up in 1985 and Parliament passed the SPG Act in 1988 dedicating the group to protecting the incumbent prime minister.
At the time it was enacted, the Act did not include former prime ministers and when VP Singh became PM in 1989 he withdrew the security cover given to Rajiv Gandhi, his predecessor PM. However, after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, the SPG Act was amended to extend protection to all former prime ministers and their families for a period of at least 10 years.
