Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday rejected the Opposition’s charge of political vendetta in the amendments in SPG Bill. The Rajya Sabha passed the Bill to amend the Act governing the elite-SPG with Congress walking out of the House saying it was dissatisfied with the Home Minister's reply.
"The Gandhi family has the same security as the Defence Minister, Home Minister, Vice President and President. They have been given personnel who have been in the SPG, Shah said, adding, "SPG is now only for the Prime Minister of the country.
"If the time comes, even (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi-ji won't be entitled to SPG after five years. He is entitled only to five years of SPG after his term ends," said Amit Shah, defending the move to replace the Gandhis' elite SPG cover with Z-plus security. Shah also pointed there was no discussion when security cover reviews with respect to former Prime Ministers including PV Narasimha Rao, IK Gujral, Chandra Shekhar, HD Deve Gowda and recently Manmohan Singh were undertaken.
Replying to the Left's charge of BJP acting with political vendetta, he said 120 workers of BJP and RSS have been killed in Kerala.
The passage of the amendments to the SPG Act will pave the way for only the Prime Minister and his "immediate family residing with him at his official residence", as well as any former Prime Minister and members of his immediate family "residing with him at the residence allotted to him for a period of five years, from the date he ceases to hold the office of Prime Minister" to be given SPG cover.
Participating in the debate, Congress MP Vivek Tankha said everyone wants the Gandhi family to be protected and there should not be "a party politics" on it. However, BJP MP Neeraj Shekhar, who himself was a SPG protectee for 11 years, being the son for former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar, said there was no need for such a cover for the family of ex-prime ministers.
While A Navaneetha Krishnan of AIDMK supported the bill, saying a reasonable decision has been taken by the Centre, SP's Ram Gopal Yadav said the definition of security threats changes with the change of government.
"People should not feel that this has been done for vindictive politics," said Yadav, adding that the home minister should "use his conscience" before deciding on threat perceptions.
Introducing the Special Protection Group (Amendment) Bill, 2019, Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy said it was raised to protect the prime minister and his immediate family members only and was later extended to relatives of the former Prime Ministers through amendments.