Amar to get ‘Z’ security when in UP
NEWDELHI:The union home ministry has upgraded security cover of Samajwadi Party’s Rajya Sabha member Amar Singh whose presence in the party has become a bone of contention in Uttar Pradesh’s ruling Yadav family.
The sudden move came without an assessment of threat perception by the Intelligence Bureau (IB). Generally, the home ministry provides security and upgrades or downgrades it only after a threat perception assessment by the IB.
As per the union home ministry order issued late Saturday, Amar Singh will get upgraded ‘Z’ category security by the paramilitary Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), but only when he visits or stays in UP. In Delhi, the police will guard him.
“Amar Singh was a ‘Z’ category protectee of the Uttar Pradesh police but about 10 days back, as the fight among ruling Yadav clan touched peak when CM Akhilesh rebelled against his father Mulayam Singh, the state police withdrew his security arrangements totally,” said a UP government official.
Sources say the home ministry has come forward to fill that void. “His security has been enhanced only for UP due to recent developments in the state. The IB was not asked to give a threat-perception analysis with regard to Amar Singh. The ministry issued the order on its own. In certain developing situations the ministry can issue such an order without seeking any report from IB,” said a home ministry official.
Under ‘Z’ category cover, which just a notch lower than topmost ‘Z Plus’ category, Singh will get around 20 guards from the CISF and an escort vehicle.
Singh’s security has remained in a state of fluctuation or rather dependent upon first - the Samajwadi Party’s relations with the ruling dispensation in New Delhi and later his own relations with the SP’s first family.
Amar Singh was provided with a ‘Z Plus’ security in 2008 when the SP threw in its lot with Manmohan Singh to save his government after the Left parties withdrew support to the UPA. But later his central security cover was first downgraded and later totally withdrawn when the NDA came to power.