SPG gets ready to protect Modi, family
If BJP emerges victorious on May 16, the Special Protection Group ( SPG) will immediately send an advance team with bulletproof vehicle and jammer to throw a security ring around BJP’s prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi.
Similar security arrangements have been made for his estranged wife Jashodaben and his mother Hiraben, who he visits sparingly.
“The SPG has done its groundwork for Modi, his wife and mother. If BJP emerges winner, SPG will not wait for Modi to be declared the PM-elect and get an invitation from the President. The elite security unit will send a skeleton security team on May 16 itself,” a security official, requesting anonymity, told HT.
The security assessment for Jashodaben is that she cannot stay at her house in a village in Banaskantha district, as it is not suitable for a SPG protectee. Sources said she will have to shift to another location – either in the district headquarters or in Gandhinagar – in an accommodation that SPG deems suitable.
“The SPG is likely to approach Modi, if he becomes PM, on shifting Jasodaben to another location. The Gujarat administration can be asked to provide a government accommodation to a SPG protectee. There are no such problems for his mother who lives in Gandhinagar,” the official said.
The SPG Act will not cover Modi’s three brothers and two sisters, but the Gujarat police will be asked to provide them Z-category security cover, the official added.
SPG chief K Durga Prasad was not available for comments while Union home ministry officials said there is nothing unusual in making a preliminary security assessment about Modi and his family.
“The need to provide security to Modi’s family is in view of the case of Rubaiya Sayeed, who was kidnapped by Kashmiri militants in 1989 after her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed took over as Union home minister in the VP Singh government,” an MHA official said.
At present, Modi enjoys the highest Z-Plus category protection by commandos of National Security Guard and Gujarat police.