Revision as of 08:43, 25 June 2021

SPG vs Z+ security: the difference

Nov 8, 2019: Deccan Herald

The Congress must bring widespread reforms across all levels of the organisation to show it is no longer in a state of inertia and to present itself as a viable political alternative to the BJP, party veteran Kapil Sibal said.

Sibal, who was among the G-23 leaders whose letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi last year demanding a meaningful overhaul of the party had triggered a storm, hoped the organisational polls, recently postponed in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, will “happen sooner than later”.

In an exclusive interview to PTI, the former union minister acknowledged that at present there is no strong political alternative to the BJP but said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has lost the moral authority to rule and the Congress can present an alternative due to the current mood in the country.

He also noted that while forming committees to review election losses is good, it will have no impact unless remedies suggested are implemented.

Noting that the party's alliances with the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) in Assam and Indian Secular Front (ISF) in West Bengal were “not thought through”, Sibal said the Congress has failed to drive home the point that minority and majority communalism are equally dangerous for the country.

He cited this as one of the reasons for the poor performance of the party in recent assembly polls.

Amid defections of young leaders – Jyotiraditya Scindia and now Jitin Prasada – to the BJP, the former minister said “there is an urgent need to strike a balance between experience and youth.”

He has earlier said that from “aaya ram, gaya ram politics, it has come to "prasada politics now” and asked whether Jitin will get the 'prasada' from the BJP, suggesting that leaders were moving out of the party to serve their political interests.

“At present, there is definitely a void in terms of a strong political alternative. It is exactly in this context, that I had given suggestions for some reforms in my party so that the country has a strong and credible opposition.

"But what comes out of it is not something for me to foretell. But I am sure, a time will come when the people of this country will decide what is good for them,” Sibal told PTI.

The veteran added that India needs a resurgent Congress and the party needs to rope in the right people to drive its poll strategy so that it can build upon the failures of the government.

“Victory of non-BJP parties in recent assembly elections has shown the chinks in the BJP's armour in terms of its vulnerability to losing when faced with a stronger opposition,” he said.

“India needs a resurgent Congress. But for that, the party needs to show that it is active, present, aware and is in the mood to engage meaningfully.

"For this to happen, we will need to have widespread reforms at the organisational hierarchy both at the central and state levels to show that the party is still a force to reckon with and is no longer in a state of inertia,” he said.

Exuding hope in the grand old party's resurgence at a time of newly emerging political equations across India, Sibal said that despite a poor showing of the Congress electorally, the current mood in the country provides an opportunity for it to emerge as a viable alternative, owing to the party's pan-India presence.

“The Modi government's inept handling of the pandemic and the resultant anguish among people across the country needs to be channelised.

"The Congress has to take it upon itself to provide an alternative roadmap in the nation's interest and I am sure, we will emerge victorious in this enterprise,” he said just two days after strategist Prashant Kishor met NCP chief Sharad Pawar in Mumbai, triggering speculation of a potential third front.

Asked if the Congress had learnt its lessons from the Antony committee report after the 2014 Lok Sabha debacle, Sibal said the party had not been able to stress that all forms of communalism were dangerous. “The Antony committee set up by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi soon after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections had rightly pointed out that fighting the polls on secularism versus communalism plank hurt the Congress that was identified as pro-minority, resulting in substantial electoral gains for the BJP.

"More importantly the Congress also failed to drive home the point that minority and majority communalism were equally dangerous for the country. In my view, the decision to ally with All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) in Assam and Indian Secular Front (ISF) in Bengal was not thought through,” said Sibal.

When pointed out that he had sought urgent party elections in the letter to Sonia Gandhi and if he agreed with the postponement of the exercise, Sibal said, “On January 22, the CWC had met to discuss the schedule for electing the new party chief in May. It was deferred by a month owing to the Assembly polls.

"The exercise is on hold at the moment because of the pandemic. I do hope it happens sooner rather than later.”

The former union minister welcomed the constitution of a committee to review the party's recent losses in West Bengal, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry, but added a caveat, “Setting up committees to analyse the reasons for any electoral debacle is welcome but unless the remedies suggested are accepted and acted upon, it will have no impact on the ground.”

The panel headed by former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan has handed over its report to Sonia Gandhi with its recommendations, which the party will discuss internally. 

History of usage

1980s to Nov 2019

Nov 28, 2019: The Times of India

Gandhis’ security not compromised: Shah

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:

The passage of the bill to amend the SPG Act was marked by sharp political exchanges in Lok Sabha, with home minister Amit Shah accusing Congress of being bothered about its first family’s status rather than an objective security assessment amid the opposition party’s accusations of political vendetta.

The minister said the Gandhis had violated SPG guidelines repeatedly, often travelling abroad without cover, and wondered what could be the reason. Though he did not name the person, he said a member of the Gandhi family was in the habit of driving expensive motorbikes in central Delhi, leaving his cover to keep pace.

He asked why the Gandhi family (Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka) travelled abroad over 600 times without taking SPG into the loop over the years.

The Congress charged that Prime Minister Modi violated security considerations when he took a ride on a sea-plane at the end of the campaign for 2017 Gujarat polls

Earlier, Congress leader Manish Tewari said the reason to remove SPG protection is that ‘number of individuals to be provided SPG cover can potentially become quite large’. Same reason was given to remove security cover of Rajiv Gandhi. The SPG protectees were told in June [2019] that threat assessment was increasing, but has changed since, he added.

Sharing specifics, Shah said Rahul Gandhi had travelled 1,892 times in India and 247 times abroad without informing SPG after 2015. Similarly, Sonia Gandhi had travelled 50 times in Delhi, 13 times in various parts of India and 29 times abroad without informing SPG while Priyanka Gandhi had travelled 339 times in Delhi, 64 times within the country and 94 times abroad without SPG cover, he added.

The new Act will restrict cover to PMs in office and their proximate families in the official residence. This cover will end five years after demitting office.”

Taking a dig at Congress members, the home minister asked why didn’t they utter a word when SPG security cover was withdrawn from former PMs Chandra Shekhar, I K Gujral, P V Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh.

Noting that the bill is not being amended for the first time but was done in 1991, 1994, 1999 and 2003 as well, he said all those amendments were, however, made keeping “one family in mind”.

Withdrawal of SPG cover

2019: The Gandhi family

Bharti Jain, Nov 9, 2019: The Times of India

Why the SPG ‘cover’ of the Gandhi family was withdrawn in 2019
From: Bharti Jain, Nov 9, 2019: The Times of India

While the Gandhis’ SPG cover was withdrawn by the government on Friday, sources said there have been several instances when each of the three members of the Gandhi family — Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka — failed to cooperate with the SPG by choosing to travel in non-bullet-resistant vehicles and undertook foreign visits unaccompanied by officers, often informing the force of their plans at the eleventh hour.

Their new Z-plus security cover by CRPF will be similar to that provided to VIPs like home minister Amit Shah.

The SPG was set up in 1985 with the purpose of protecting the Prime Minister. The force was conceptualised in the wake of Indira Gandhi’s assassination. While SPG Act originally covered only the PM and immediate family, it has since been amended from time to time. Ex-PMs and their kin were made eligible for the first time in 1991.

Sources indicated a proposal to limit eligibility for SPG — a highly-trained force that is self-sufficient with its own high-tech equipment and aids including cars like BMWs and sophisticated arms, and also with statutory backing to make the state police conform to its requirements — was initiated in 2012-13 itself. The justification for trimming was that since SPG is expensive, it needs to factor in every contingency including terror threats and cannot leave anything to chance, and weeding out as many protectees as possible would gear the force to the task of protecting those with the highest threat perception, such as the PM.

“I am not privy to the sensitive inputs (on threat perception of the Gandhis) and cannot comment except that in the perception of security and intelligence agencies, their threat quotient has gone down to the extent that such a removal is warranted,” Yashovardhan Azad, a former IPS officer, said.

Sources in the CRPF said takeover of the Gandhi family’s security from SPG may easily take a week to 10 days, with SPG likely to help out with men and material, including cars and jammers that are not readily available with CRPF. “A joint security review by officials of SPG, CRPF, IB and Delhi Police will be held soon to assess details relating to the takeover,” said an officer.

The officer said the transition of the Gandhis’ security detail from SPG to CRPF could mean fewer personnel, possibly fewer and less fancy vehicles (though two BMWs were sanctioned for CRPF in Manmohan Singh’s case), relatively less sophisticated arms and higher dependence on state police during the Gandhis’ visits outside Delhi.

In 1988, the SPG Act was passed extending protection of the force to only the PM, an office then occupied by Rajiv Gandhi. Rajiv’s cover was withdrawn when the V P Singh government took over in 1989. However, when the former was killed by an LTTE suicide bomber in 1991, the P V Narasimha Rao government amended the SPG Act to include ex-PMs and their kin as eligible protectees for 10 years after demitting office.