Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi (SR)

New Delhi, Aug 26: The Central government is likely to remove Special Protection Group (SPG) from former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s security detail in the near future.

As reported in the Hindu, Authorities have ''orally'' conveyed to Manmohan Singh that the decision to withdraw SPG cover was reportedly taken after a three-month review involving the Cabinet Secretariat and the Ministry of Home Affairs with inputs from intelligence agencies the Research and Analysis Wing and the Intelligence Bureau. However, the decision has not yet been formally communicated in writing to the former prime minister. 

The SPG was set up after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1985. The Parliament passed the SPG Act in 1988 dedicating the group to protecting the Prime Minister of India and initially the Act did not include former Prime Ministers and their families.

After Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in 1991, the SPG Act was amended, offering SPG protection to all former Prime Ministers and their families for a period of at least 10 years. 

The Vajpayee government, in 1999, conducted a major review of the SPG’s operations and 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 Central Government.” Based on the review the government had withdrawn SPG protection to former PMs P.V. Narasimha Rao, H.D. Deve Gowda, and I.K. Gujral.

As of now, other than Manmohan Singh only PM Modi, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her children Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are covered by SPG. Manmohan Singh’s daughters, had given up SPG cover voluntarily in 2014.