NEW DELHI: Familiarity will no longer breed content for VVIP protectees of the elite Special Protection Group (SPG).
The unit, which is responsible for guarding the Prime Minister and immediate family, has reviewed its deployment pattern with frequent rotations of fresh agents. Most VVIPs are accustomed to their long-serving security detail. The change in pattern follows the appointment of Arun Kumar Sinha as SPG chief in April. An official defended the rotation saying it is meant to increase the ‘state of alert’ of agents.
he Close Protection Team (CPT) consists of four officers and is the VVIP’s last line of defence. Normally its members are not changed since both the VVIP and the agents develop a level of confidence and comfort with one another. After Arun Kumar Sinha took over as the new SPG chief, the changes in detail can happen even within a month.
The move has not gone down well with some VVIPs. One of them even asked an agent to sit in the escort vehicle behind. He has started driving himself without the CPT sitting inside his car. Said his close aide, “Trust and confidence comes with time. If we start changing CPT officers so frequently, it raises suspicion against the government’s motives.”
At present, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Vadra Gandhi, former prime ministers H D Deve Gowda, A B Vajpayee, Manmohan Singh and his children are under SPG protection. Priyanka’s husband Robert Vadra gets SPG security when he is accompanying her. The unit was created in 1985, after Indira Gandhi’s assassination with the mandate to secure the PM, former PMs and their immediate family members. The force is directly under the command of the Cabinet Secretariat, and the Secretary (Security) is its head.