SPG security cover for Gandhi family removed. (File Photo/PTI)

Gandhi family SPG security removed: In what could trigger a big debate, the government has reportedly decided to withdraw Special Protection Group security cover from the Gandhi family. Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi, son Rahul and daughter Priyanka would now be provided ‘Z+’ security by the CRPF on an all-India basis, news agency PTI quoted officials, as saying.

The decision to withdraw the special security cover of the Congress first family has come following an assessment by the Centre.

Earlier, the government had removed the SPG cover provided to former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.

The SPG force, which has about 3,000 personnel currently, provides security to only four people – three of the Gandhi family and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The force was formed in 1985 after former PM Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her own bodyguards on October 31, 1984.

Congress cries conspiracy

Reacting over the government’s decision to withdraw SPG cover, Ahmed Patel, a close aide of Sonia Gandhi, accused the BJP of vendetta.

“The BJP has descended to the ultimate personal vendetta mechanism, compromising the lives of family members of 2 Former Prime Ministers to acts of terror and violence,” Patel said in his tweet.