Sonia security to now be at par with PM, President

NEW DELHI, MARCH 1: Call it ``heightened threat perception'' or whatever, Congress president Sonia Gandhi is now at par with Prime Ministe...

NEW DELHI, MARCH 1: Call it “heightened threat perception” or whatever, Congress president Sonia Gandhi is now at par with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and President K R Narayanan — on at least one count.

The Union Home Ministry has decided to enhance her security to the extent that a special police route — it means stoppage of all vehicular traffic in her way — will be formed around her whenever she ventures out of 10, Janpath. So far only the PM and the President enjoyed this privilege — at the cost of harried commuters and motorists!

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The sudden concern for Sonia’s safety does not end here. The Home Ministry has decided to equip her official convoy with a Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) and a “jammer” (a sophisticated devise meant to de-activate all remote triggered explosives within a specific range) as well.

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Home Ministry officials are tightlipped about the reasons for taking such extraordinary security measures for the Congress chief. But the concerned file in the matter, it is learnt, was cleared at the “highest level”.

According to one argument in the North Block, “heightened threat perception” of Sonia Gandhi has forced the Home Ministry to take this decision.

Delhi Police — its manpower already stretched to the limit, mainly on account of `VIP duties’ — has, however, not taken kindly to the decision. Special Commissioner R S Gupta recently conveyed to the Home Ministry that they were willing to provide additional police personnel to Sonia to escort her out. But to no avail; nothing less then a police route would do in case of Sonia, the Ministry ruled.

The move to take “special care” of Sonia could not have come at a worst time, grumbled a senior police official in the traffic department. The city police, he explained, was already gearing itself for United States President Bill Clinton’s visit who is set to descend on the Capital with a mega-entourage.

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Barring Vajpayee, the specialised police route is formed for none of the VIPs currently having the elite Special Protection Group (SPG) security cover — and they include all the former PMs and their family members.

Vajpayee, it appears, is aware of the inconvenience his police route causes to the commoners. As such, according to sources, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has advised the police to ensure that if possible, at least one side of the two-way road should be opened to traffic in the event of his passing through. It’s another matter, though, that the edgy SPG and the local police on the PM’s route seldom follow the suggestion.

Of late, a number of public interest litigations (PILs) have been moved in courts for doing away with such security measures for the overall convenience of the people.