Amar Singh gets Z-category central security again following ‘recent developments’
The union home ministry has upgraded security cover of Samajwadi Party’s Rajya Sabha member Amar Singh whose presence in the party has become a bone of contention in the ruling Yadav family of Uttar Pradesh.
The union home ministry has upgraded security cover of Samajwadi Party’s Rajya Sabha member Amar Singh whose presence in the party has become a bone of contention in the ruling Yadav family of Uttar Pradesh.
The sudden move came without an assessment of threat perception by the Intelligence Bureau (IB). Generally, the home ministry provides security or upgrades or downgrades it only after a threat perception assessment by the IB.
As per the union home ministry order issued late Saturday, Amar Singh will get upgraded ‘Z’ category security by the paramilitary Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), but only when he visits or stays in Uttar Pradesh. In Delhi, the local police will guard him.
“Amar Singh was a ‘Z’ category protectee of the Uttar Pradesh police but about 10 days back, as the fight among ruling Yadav clan touched peak when state chief minister Akhilesh Yadav rebelled against his father and SP supremo Mulayam Singh, the state police withdrew his security arrangements totally,” said a UP government official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Sources say the union home ministry has come forward to fill that void.
“His security has been enhanced only for Uttar Pradesh due to recent developments in the state. The IB was not asked to give a threat-perception analysis with regard to Amar Singh. The ministry issued the order on its own. In certain developing situations the ministry can issue such an order without seeking any report from IB,” said a home ministry official who spoke on the condition of anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to media.
Under ‘Z’ category cover, which just a notch lower than topmost ‘Z Plus’ category, Singh will get around 20 guards from the CISF and an escort vehicle. Under the ‘Z Plus’ category, the protectee also gets a pilot vehicle.
Now Amar Singh’s security will not be dependent upon the UP police as a central force will be guarding him when he is in that state.
Amar Singh’s security has remained in a state of fluctuation or rather dependent upon first - the Samajwadi Party’s relations with the ruling dispensation in New Delhi and later his own relations with the Samajwadi Party’s first family.
Amar Singh was provided with a ‘Z Plus’ security in 2008 when the SP threw in its lot with Manmohan Singh to save his government after the Left parties withdrew support to the UPA government over the nuclear deal with the United States.
But later his central security cover was first downgraded and later totally withdrawn when the NDA came to power.
In between he was also out of the SP. In May last year, he was made a Rajya Sabha member by the SP after a patch up with Mulayam Singh Yadav.
He not only made entry in the central list as ‘Y’ category protectee of the Delhi police but also became a ‘Z’ category protectee of the UP police. The infighting in the SP ended the security cover of the UP police for him.
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