SPG withdrawal of Gandhis raised in LS CRPF asks SPG for bulletproof vehicles

NEW DELHI: Congress l eader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Tuesday raised the issue of withdrawal of SPG security cover to the Gandhi family, but the government said he cannot raise the matter in Zero Hour as he had not given a notice for the same.

After the notice of adjournment motion given by the party on the withdrawal of Special Protection Group (SPG) cover to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and former party president Rahul Gandhi was rejected by Speaker Om Birla, Chowdhury raised t he i ssue i n t he Zero Hour.

Supporting the demand of the Congress, DMK member T R Baalu said removing the SPG cover from the Gandhis has put their lives under threat.

The government should provide SPG protection to them, Baalu said.

Chowdhury said the family faces threat to life and the cover by the elite security organisation should not have been withdrawn.

The Congress leader said the previous National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee also did not remove the SPG cover of the Gandhis.

He wondered what is the conspiracy of the government in removing the SPG cover.

Both Congress and DMK members walked out of the House on the issue of removing SPG cover from Gandhis.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal said Chowdhury cannot raise the issue in Zero Hour as he had not given notice in this regard.

“You have rejected the notice for adjournment on the issue. He did not give notice to raise the issue in Zero Hour,” the minister told the Chair.

He had raised the issue on Monday also.

The notice had described the move to withdraw the cover as “arbitrary”.

It said the security cover was withdrawn ignoring the “existing and probable threats” to the Gandhi family.

The government has replaced the SPG security cover given to the family of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, who was assassinated by LTTE terrorists on May 21, 1991, by the ‘Z- plus’ security of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

NEW DELHI : The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has asked the Special Protection Group to provide its bulletproof cars, earlier earmarked for the Gandhi family, to the paramilitary unit because it doesn’t have armoured vehicles to ferry around VIPS, two home ministry officials familiar with the matter said.

The SPG had bullet-resistant Tata Safaris, Scorpio and sedans were used for the Gandhi family’s protection. On November 8, the government withdrew the SPG cover of the Gandhi family, designating CRPF to provide them the Z-plus category protection in which over 100 armed commandos are deployed for each person’s security.

CRPF, which has taken over the security of five SPG protectees – Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, former Pmmanmohan Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur, for the first time --did not have any bulletproof or bomb-proof vehicles in the commercial category in its VIP wing. Its mine-protected vehicles and bullet-resistant sports utility vehicles are being used in J&K and in areas where Maoist rebels are active.

“CRPF is in touch with SPG through us for procuring the bullet-resistant vehicles used by the Gandhi family because purchasing new vehicles is a long process...spg anyway has several unused bullet-resistant cars,” the first MHA official said on condition of anonymity.

SPG cars earlier used in Manmohan Singh’s convoys (when he was PM from 2004 to 2014) and personal travel have been handed over to CRPF. According to the MHA’S Yellow Book on security guidelines of paramilitary forces and police, state governments/police are supposed to provide bulletproof cars and outer peripheral security to any Z-plus category security cover protectee.

The second MHA official cited above said the CRPF security for the Gandhi family was not different from SPG cover.