Back in 1985, on the recommendations of an obscure committee, the government set up a “special” group – whose sole task was to protect the Prime Minister. This was done in the aftermath of Smt. Indira Gandhi’s assassination which had revealed security lapses that authorities felt could only be fixed by a “special” security group. This was the beginning of SPG – the “Special Protection Group”.
Like all good “ideas” from the government, the SPG too started expanding. Initially limited to protecting the Prime Minister, its mandate was extended to former Prime Ministers (for a period of five years from the date on which the former Prime Minister ceased to hold office) after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. Somewhere along the line, this five years period became ten years.
In 2002, an amendment in SPG act was introduced to reduce the duration of protection accorded to former PMs to one year, with the proviso that this period could be extended based on the level of the threat. “However, an exception was made in the case of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her family, who are being given SPG protection continuously of the scale of the Prime Minister”.
This is the act that gives “special” security to five people at present – the current Prime Minister, former PM (Sh. Vajpayee), Smt. Sonia Gandhi, Sh. Rahul Gandhi and Smt. Priyanka Vadra. This “special” protection does not come cheap. It costs more than Rs 1 crore each day.
Not that it was always so. More than five years back, when UPA-I came to power, the total expense was almost a fourth of this amount (Rs 97 crores). It was even lower before that, back in 1999, when the NDA came to power. At the time, this elite unit was responsible for the security of nine people (the then PM, five former PMs and Smt. Sonia Gandhi & her family). Its annual expenditure then was around Rs 75crores (by the way, none of the children of any former PMs or current PM enjoy SPG cover save one exception).
What explains the steep rise from Rs 97 crores in 2004-2005 to Rs 386 cores in 2010-2011? It surely cannot be the addition of just one person (present PM). Nor do I think inflation can be an excuse. Can it be the cost of ultra-modern equipments – including “special” helicopters for SPG protectees? Helicopters which reportedly cost Rs 110 crores each? or could it be the special counter-assault vehicles that cost Rs 51cr each?
And is it alright to feel somewhat uneasy that we pay Rs 1 crore every day just to provide “security” to these five people? Which, by the way, the vast majority of those who are reading this piece do not have?
Does a government which has repeatedly failed in its fundamental duties – of protecting life & property and delivering justice – have the moral right to spend such extraordinary amounts on the security of one family and two others?
But do you know what bothers me even more, far more, than the expenditure? It is the unstated, implicit assumption that Prime Ministers (current and former and in one case, their family members) are some “special” class of people who are incapable or being protected by our “normal” security forces. Ergo, we need a “Special Protection Group” for them.
Just why? I wonder. Do you?
P.S. By the way, being married to an “SPG” protectee has a little known additional advantage (beyond the usual ones of being able to sleep without worrying about burglars & such and being surrounded by “Top Gun” style commandos wherever you go). It exempts you from the “Pre-embarkation” security checks at all civil airports in the country!
Don’t believe me? Ask Sh. Robert Vadra. Jai Hind, Jai Bharat!
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