As threats loom, here's how SPG guards Modi

R Rajagopalan
2 April 2019 7:30 AM IST (Updated:2019-04-05 10:27:24)

Illustration: Prathap Ravishankar As electioneering picks up and campaigning goes on in full swing, protecting the leaders becomes a key issue for the nation’s security establishment. The four most protected people are Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Of them three are candidates in the Lok Sabha election. Modi’s security has been beefed...

As electioneering picks up and campaigning goes on in full swing, protecting the leaders becomes a key issue for the nation’s security establishment. The four most protected people are Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Of them three are candidates in the Lok Sabha election.

Modi’s security has been beefed up after the Balakot airstrike. Sources in the Intelligence Bureau say they have picked up chatter about threats to his life. Here’s how he is protected.

The Special Protection Group (SPG), the highest level of protection available in India, has doubled its security detail to its protectees due to perceived increased threats. Interestingly, three SPG protectees are contesting in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

SPG vs Z+ protection
The SPG’s primary task is to monitor each and every movement of the prime minister. It protects the sitting and former prime ministers from any threats, natural calamities, political adversaries, enemy countries, political and terrorists groups. The SPG Act was constituted in 1985, after the assassination of sitting prime minister Indira Gandhi. It was modified to guard a prime minister and his/her family after their term ended when former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in Tamil Nadu. Even the President of India doesn’t get this kind of security.
A notch below is the Z+ protection, which is looked after by the National Security Guard, Central Reserve Police Force, and the state police, among others. Security levels Z, Y, X also exist. The government is responsible for the safety of various individuals, from politicians to sportspersons and celebrities.
The Lok Sabha campaigns add additional pressure to the Prime Minister’s security detail as he is currently touring the country. The New Zealand mosque attack also have the Indian security agencies worried and they have doubled up the protection to Prime Minister Modi.