As the Winder Session of Parliament begins, Congress is up to its old, oft repeated trick against – disruption for the sake of it. The Congress party led by Sonia Gandhi has submitted an adjournment motion in Lok Sabha over the withdrawal of SPG security to Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
The Congress party in their adjournment motion has called the move by the central government ‘arbitrary’ and said that the SPG security cover was removed for the Gandhi family despite the imminent threat they face.
While the Congress has decided to give an adjournment motion on the second day of Parliament, on the first day itself, this issue was raised by Congress. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Monday had raised the issue of SPG cover being withdrawn and called the move ‘arbitrary’.
Recently, the Home Ministry had replaced the SPG category status of the Gandhi family with Z-plus security, which will be now taken over by CRPF personnel on the all-India basis. According to India Today journalist Shiv Aroor, the detail now given to Rahul, Sonia and Priyanka Gandhi would involve a 55 personnel detail, including 10 NSG commandos and the Police. This was done after a detailed threat perception was conducted.
Read: Here are the possible reasons why Rahul, Sonia and Priyanka Gandhi lost their SPG cover
In fact, the members of Gandhi Parivar, Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi and two Gandhi scions, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra did not use SPG’s bullet-proof vehicles on numerous occasions and also did not accompany SPG personnel abroad during their foreign visits on a majority of their trips abroad.
There have been 1892 incidents till May 2019, when Rahul Gandhi travelled in a non-BR vehicle in Delhi, which amounts to almost one incident every day. Rahul Gandhi travelled 247 times in a non-BR car when he travelled outside Delhi.
Read: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra continues to stay in govt accommodation despite removal of SPG cover
Further, of the total 156 foreign trips that Rahul Gandhi has made since 1991, he did not take SPG officers along on 143 visits. The government source said that Rahul Gandhi in most of these 143 foreign visits, shared his travel itinerary at the last possible hours preventing the SPG officers from accompanying him on the tours.
Sonia Gandhi too did not use an SPG bullet-resistant vehicle on 50 occasions while travelling in New Delhi from 2015 to May 2019. Sonia Gandhi has made 13 unscheduled visits to various places in the country in the last 5 years during which she used non-BR cars. She also did not take SPG officers on 24 of her foreign visits since 2015, states the report.
In Priyanka Gandhi’s case, since 2015 to May this year, she did not use SPG bullet-resistant vehicles for her travel on 339 occasions within Delhi and on 64 occasions at other places in the country.
