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Government withdraws former PM Manmohan Singh’s SPG cover

NEW DELHI: The Special Protection Group (SPG) protection given to former prime minister Manmohan Singh had been withdrawn following a review by multiple security agencies, officials said.

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Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 26

The Special Protection Group (SPG) protection given to former prime minister Manmohan Singh had been withdrawn following a review by multiple security agencies but he will continue to get Z plus security, officials said on Monday.

The former prime minister’s Z plus security cover--one of the highest—would be given by one of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), preferably the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), they said.

The government’s decision had been conveyed to Singh, who was India’s prime minister from 2004 and 2014, and the SPG contingent would be withdrawn from his New Delhi residence after one of the CAPFs took over the responsibility, a home ministry official said.

“The current security cover review is a periodical and professional exercise based on threat perception that is purely based on professional assessment by security agencies. Manmohan Singh continues to have  Z+ security cover,” a home ministry spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, it is learnt from sources close to Dr Singh, who held the post of the Prime Minister for 10 years from 2004 to 2014, indicated that the leader is “personally not concerned about his security” and will go by the government’s decision.

The decision to withdraw the SPG security, the country’s highest grade of protection, was taken after a three-month review involving the Cabinet Secretariat and the Ministry of Home Affairs with inputs from various intelligence agencies, officials said.

With the removal of Singh’s SPG cover, the top notch security cover will now be given only to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Gandhi family--Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her children, Rahul and Priyanka.

According to procedures laid down by the SPG Act, 1988, Singh was entitled to SPG cover for one year after he demitted office in 2014.

His SPG security cover was renewed annually after a review of the threats faced by him and his wife Gursharan Kaur.

Singh’s daughters, who were also given the SPG cover, gave up the protection voluntarily in 2014.

Similar security was also withdrawn from former prime ministers HD Deve Gowda and VP Singh two decades ago. Another former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was not seen in public in his last few years because of his illness, had SPG cover till he died in 2018. But his foster daughter had given up the elite security cover in 2004.

The SPG has over 3,000 personnel. Based on threat perception, the elite force covers Prime Ministers as well as former Prime Ministers and their families.

The SPG was set up in 1985 after the assassination of prime minister Indira Gandhi. Parliament passed the SPG Act in 1988, dedicating the group to protecting the prime minister. At the time, the Act did not include former prime ministers. When VP Singh came to power in 1989, his government withdrew the SPG protection given to his predecessor Rajiv Gandhi.

After Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination in 1991, the SPG Act was amended to offer SPG protection to all former prime ministers and their families for at least 10 years.

The Atal Bihari Vajpayee government conducted a review of the SPG’s functioning, and decided to withdraw the SPG protection given to former prime ministers PV Narasimha Rao, HD Deve Gowda and IK Gujral.

In 2003, the Vajpayee government again amended the SPG Act to bring the period of automatic protection down from 10 years to “a period of one year from the date on which the former prime minister ceased to hold office” and beyond one year based on the level of threat as decided by the government. with PTI

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