Introduction: After the unfortunate assassination of Hon’ble Prime Minister, late Indira Gandhi, in 1984, SPG was formed in 1985. Further, it was formally constituted in 1988 after the SPG Act, passed in the parliament. This act was given on the recommendation of the Birbal Nath Committee, which the Ministry of home affairs constituted in the year 1985; the committee was set up to examine the issues related to the security of the Prime minister and his/her immediate family submit its recommendations for the same. The act came into force on 2nd June 1988. SPG is responsible for providing proximate security to Prime Minister and his immediate family.
History and Major Amendments in the Act: Initially, the SPG was supposed to provide security to the Prime Minister till his/her term in office as PM; after the demise of Indira Gandhi, Rajeev Gandhi was appointed as Prime minister, and he remained in the office till 1989, in 1991 Rajeev Gandhi was also assassinated in Sri Lanka by the suicide bombers and according to provisions of SPG Act,1998 he was ineligible for the SPG protection. We lost our two Prime ministers in 7 years. And it was decided to extend the scope of SPG, and Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi provided SPG protection for 28 years.
The act was amended in the year 2019, significant provisions of this amendment reduced the SPG cover to PM and his immediate family and the family must be residing with him in the official residence only, the Amendment further reduced the SPG protection period to 5years for the former PMs before the amendment former PMs were eligible to get SPG protection for ten years.
How SPG Commandos Are Selected and who controls them: No separate exam is conducted for selecting SPG commando. They are chosen from the best personnel working in The APF (Central Armed Police Forces). Usually, a DGP ranked officer works as director of SPG, and Arun Kumar Sinha is the Current Director of SPG. It is mandatory to have at least five years of experience to join SPG. Further, SPG commandos are restricted from enjoying their Freedom of speech and provided under Article 19 of the Indian Constitution. They are prohibited from talking to media houses or writing books during their SPG tenure. Currently, we have approx. 3k SPG commandos report to cabinet secretariat working under Ministry of Home Affairs.
Bluebook and State Police Relation: Instructions regarding the working of SPG are issued by the Ministry of home affairs, and they are contained in the bluebook. The SPG must manage all the security arrangements three days before the prime minister’s visit. The SPG is responsible for providing proximate security, which means protection provided from the close quarters during the journey, in residence, during any public meeting or function; further, the state police where the prime minister is traveling is responsible for working by SPG and providing security, it’s worth mentioning here law and order comes under the State list hence State Government has the power to control the functioning of the police in their respective states. It is the responsibility of the State Police to provide outer security to the Prime Minister.
Weapons provided to SPG Commandos: Each SPG commando is equipped with various sophisticated weapons, including bulletproof jackets, FN-P90 Machine guns exclusively made in Belgium, Combat shoes, tactical sunglasses, and communication devices with noise cancellation. They also provided FN 5-7 made in Belgium handgun with a 50m. range and 20 round magazine.
Why SPG in the news: Recently, we have seen a significant security lapse of Prime Minister during his visit to Ferozpur Dist. of Punjab to lay the foundation stone of development projects; it’s worth mentioning here that Ferozepur is a border dist. With the proximity of Pakistan. Initially, he was supposed to go via air, but due to lousy weather, i.e., rain and poor visibility, Pm was forced to visit Ferozpur via road. PM’s convoy was stranded for 20 minutes over a flyover as farmers blocked the way. Farmers are still protesting in Punjab against the State and Central Government over their compensation for damaged crops, compensation to deceased farmer families, withdrawal of criminal cases against the farmers, etc. The travel via road was decided after necessary confirmation of the security arrangements were made by the DGP, Punjab Police.
Way Forward and Conclusion: A 3 membered team has been constituted by the Ministry of Home Affairs to inquire into serious security lapse in the security arrangements of the prime minister during his Punjab visit. The committee will be headed by Sudhir Kumar Saxena, Secretary(Security) & Cabinet secretariat. Meanwhile, Punjab Government submitted its report to MHA on the security breach; it was mentioned that an extra workforce was deployed considering the protest by the Punjab Government.
Meanwhile, a petition has been filled in the Hon’ble Supreme court by an organization named Lawyers Voice regarding this security lapse on the part of the Punjab State Government; It is alleged in the petition that this lapse in security is intentional and is a part of larger political vendetta against the prime minister and this is a deliberate aWttempt to tarnish the image of the prime minister as an institution.