NEW DELHI: The Lok Sabhaon Wednesday passed the Special Protection Group (amendment) Bill seeking to provie the SPG cover to Sonia Gandhi widow of the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the children after the government agreed to amend the bill to include former prime ministers and their families as well. The House adopted the amendment moved by the government to include other former prime ministers and restricted the security cover to five years. The bill was passed by a voice vote
Moving the bill for consideration the union home minister S.B.Gavan said in deference to the wishes of the members the government decided to amend the bill which would provide the SPG security cover for a period of five years from the date a prime minister cased to hold office.
The members from the treasury branches had heated arguments repeatedly with their counterparts in the opposition benches as the latter felt there was no need to bring the col and the government could act on its own under its power. Members from the Janata Dal the BJP and the Left felt that the law should be the same for every citizen and there should be no discrimination.
Replying to the debate Chavan remarked that drafting of the bill had given the opposition an opportunity to say what was normally not said about the people after their assassination. He agreed that protection should be available to anyone who felt any threat to his life but some people belong to a different category for which the threat was much greater.
He said it was imperative to follow the guidelines given in the Blue Book and observed that despite all security Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were assassinated. He did not want to go into the details of the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi as the matter was before a commission of inquiry he pointed out.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 20, 1991
