By Murali Krishnan

New Delhi, July 12 (IANS): The government has been quick to decide on not upgrading Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Varun Gandhi's security cover to the Z plus category, but is yet to take a call on whittling down or even dispensing with the bodyguards of a majority of the 395 VIPs in the capital.

Over 9,000 personnel, mainly from Delhi Police, supplemented by hundreds of paramilitary personnel drawn from forces like the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), provide security to the VIPs.

The number of armed bodyguards has often been seen as a status symbol in the capital, the major reason why VIPs are so reluctant to have their security cover reduced. Appraisals of all the people protected that the home ministry periodically reviews after receiving inputs from the Intelligence Bureau have revealed that many of them do not require security as the threat perception simply does not exist.

But despite arriving at this finding of many people not facing any threat from either terrorists or criminal groups there has hardly been any case of security being downgraded or removed in the last five years.

"We have had two more appraisal meetings and now the file will move to the home secretary, G.K. Pillai. But I guess the final call will have to be taken by the minister," a top intelligence functionary, who could not be identified, told IANS.

The intelligence establishment reckons that if its recommendations were accepted then only 100 VIPs in the capital would be left with the security cover.

According to senior home ministry officials many VIPs including politicians, former bureaucrats, judges, religious leaders, lawyers, ministers and a few journalists have persisted with their security cover for years because of the pressure they bring to bear on the establishment.

Highly placed home ministry officials told IANS that there were now no known threats to former Jammu and Kashmir governor G.C. Saxena, former union minister and Jammu and Kashmir governor Jagmohan and Punjab Kesri editor Ashwani Kumar Minna.

Former bureaucrats who have held sensitive positions are allowed to keep their security cover for six months after retiring from office. But several have kept their security cover much longer.

"We are examining the cases of former home secretary V.K. Duggal and former national security adviser Brajesh Mishra," said a senior home ministry official.

Last year while hearing public interest litigation on the security provided to VIPs, a division bench of the Delhi High Court headed by Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah and Justice S. Muralildhar came down heavily on the government.

The judges said: "We cannot appreciate this. You have made a mockery of the threat perception. The common man is dying in the streets of Delhi and old couples are being strangulated due to lack of security."

Officials pointed out that the government spends over Rs.250 crore (Rs.2.5 billion) annually for the protection of VIPs.

VIP security is broken up into four levels -- Z plus for the top of the heap, followed by Z, Y and X categories.

According to ministry officials, Home Minister P. Chidambaram may have to take the tough call of pruning security. "Considering that he moves around with minimal security, he has set the precedent," said a senior official.