he whereabouts of the Gandhis will no longer be a secret while they are abroad, even though they enjoy Special Protection Group (SPG) cover. In fact, every time Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Vadra and other members of the family go on a foreign tour, the Narendra Modi government will have precise information regarding their movements. Rahul, who turned 44 years on Thursday, was until some days ago in Europe. Sonia Gandhi was likely to go out of the country on Saturday and shall be back in a week's time.

Well informed sources said that during the UPA regime, the Gandhis travelled freely and the SPG normally did not share the information of their whereabouts with anyone except the Cabinet Secretariat and the Intelligence Bureau. The political establishment was unaware of their travel plans and no one dared ask anything unless the Gandhis themselves shared their itinerary with people close to them. But in the changed political scenario, it will be difficult for the SPG to conceal information and it will also be equally difficult for the Gandhis to give the security and intelligence agencies a slip. In other words, the security cover provided to them will serve as an obstruction to their privacy and act as an instrument of surveillance.

In the past when Sonia Gandhi went for treatment to the United States, the then SPG director Bharat Wanchoo (now Governor of Goa) accompanied her along with some of his team members. He ensured that her movements were kept confidential. The nature of her ailment and the procedures adopted to treat her were never put in the public domain. All this while, the political class speculated on where she was. Some said that she had recuperated partially at a Park Avenue apartment in New York, belonging to the family of Indira Gandhi's friend, Katharine Meyer Graham while others said that she was at the Syosset Oyster Bay in Long Island.

Similarly, Rahul Gandhi and Robert Vadra would travel very often to foreign countries and were also frequent visitors to Dubai. Now each time the Gandhis travel, they will have to disclose their destination to enable the SPG to make the required arrangements to ensure their safety and security. Unless, they give the slip to the SPG and leave without informing anyone. Even then they will be required to go through the Immigration counters which function under the overall control of the Intelligence Bureau and the government will immediately know the first destination they are headed to. For instance if one of them was to catch a flight to Dubai, it would be known and if they board another flight for some other destination from Dubai, the Indian authorities will have to seek the information from their Dubai counterparts. Rahul Gandhi had visited Havana in 2012. His visit to Cuba was not public knowledge though the embassy circuit knew precisely where he was. The SPG, however, kept it a closely guarded secret.

Sources in the Delhi Police confirmed that there have been occasions when VVIP protectees manage to shake off their security. It has happened on several occasions with Rahul Gandhi and even the former Home Minister P. Chidambaram, who sometimes preferred total privacy and would go away unnoticed if they considered security to be an obstacle. But the practice so far has been that no regime likes to disturb the security arrangements of the previous government and allows the security cover to continue if the threat perception is of a very critical nature. In case of the Gandhis who have lost two members of their family, it is colossal. Even in the case of L.K. Advani, who was guarded by 260 personnel, even if four or five were moved out, his staff would want them to be immediately replaced. The government of the day complied. Advani enjoyed a much bigger security cover than the three Home Ministers of the UPA government.

A senior official said that the Congress regime was very liberal in granting security as was evident from a request received from a close aide of Sonia Gandhi to give additional security to a BJP leader, now a Union minister.

Sources said that Sonia Gandhi's position will be quite similar to what it was during the period of the P.V. Narasimha Rao government when some of the SPG officers assigned to her were from the Intelligence Bureau and kept a watch on those who came to meet her. What she was doing at that time was known by those in power even if it was a Congress government. A senior IB officer (now retired) connected with her security confirmed that many of the people in her SPG team were from the STF (Special Task Force) originally constituted to protect the Prime Minister and were later absorbed into the SPG. However, over a period of time, they moved on as the demands of the job require younger and fitter personnel to do VVIP duties.

As per the SPG Act, the government of the day has to protect and provide adequate security to former Prime Ministers and their families as also to the Gandhis. The drill is that whenever a member of the Gandhi family travels, the SPG is required to conduct an ASL (Advanced Security Liaison). The drill is not as elaborate as it is for a serving Prime Minister who has a lot of protocol issues but much depends also on the countries to be visited. While some countries do not allow any security personnel to carry any weapons, others do so. The protection of a protectee is also the responsibility of the country he visits and the SPG gets the assistance it needs on a case to case basis. When former Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh was being treated in London, the SPG had got permission to be with him. A strong contingent was staying at the St James Hotel during this period.

The standard operational procedure of the SPG is that if a Protectee gives it a slip, the matter is immediately brought to the notice of the director who in turn informs the Cabinet Secretariat. The Protectee is then cautioned on his action and told to be careful in the future. But the SPG is duty bound to provide the cover and it remains its responsibility to keep a close watch on the protectees. In addition, the security requirements make it mandatory to abide by the Blue Book which is amended after a review as and when the need arises.