New Delhi, Aug 26: Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government has removed the Special Protection Group (SPG) from former prime minister Manmohan Singh’s security detail.
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, he is "personally not concerned about his security" and will abide by the decision taken by the government. “No problem... It’s Ok,” was his response, sources said.
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.
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.
An official who had information about the matter told a national daily 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 that Singh was informed about the removal of his SPG cover.
The withdrawal of the elite protection force has happened earlier as well when the cover was removed from former prime ministers HD Deve Gowda and VP Singh.
The Special Protection Group was set up in 1985, after former prime minister Indira Gandhi was killed by her security guards in 1984.
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