Rajasthan CM hits out at Centre for withdrawing SPG cover of Gandhi family

Hitting out at the Centre for withdrawing the Special Protection Group cover of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her children Rahul and Priyanka, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday said the move shows the BJP's "mental bankruptcy". Gehlot said the BJP has resorted to a very low level of vendetta politics.

He demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi intervene in the matter if the decision was taken at the level of Home Minister Amit Shah. "They have resorted to very low level politics. SPG cover was given under the act of Parliament. It is for protecting the lives, what other gain is there from it? The kind of politics they are doing shows their mental bankruptcy. Prime minister should intervene if the home minister has taken the decision on his own level," Gehlot told reporters here.

"If this was in the knowledge of the prime minister, then this is the misfortune of the country," he said. Gehlot condemned the decision to withdraw the SPG cover given to the family of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, who was assassinated by LTTE terrorists on May 21, 1991.

The Gandhis will be without SPG protection after 28 years. They were included in the VVIP security list following an amendment in September 1991 in the SPG Act of 1988. "The government is compromising the lives of a family which has lost two members to acts of terror. It is vendetta politics and of a very low level. They were accorded cover based on threat assessment and it must continue," he said.

The Gandhi family will be covered by CRPF personnel. Under the Z-plus security, they will have commandos from the paramilitary force in close proximity besides guards at their homes and where ever they travel in the country, the official said.

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