Manmohan Singh’s daughters give up SPG cover

New Delhi: Daughters of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have decided to give up the security cover provided to them by the elite Special Protection Guard (SPG). According to sources, after assessment of their security and a decision to continue the SPG cover for another year till May 2016, the two daughters — Upinder Singh and Daman Singh — have communicated verbally to the SPG officials requesting for discontinuing the protection by the elite force.

The SPG commandos have since been withdrawn from the security of Ms Daman Singh, a writer by profession, and the process for taking out the SPG cover for her sister Ms Upinder Singh, who is a professor in Delhi University, is on, official sources said. After necessary formalities, the SPG will be replaced by the Delhi police, sources added.

The SPG, a force carved out from various paramilitary and state police forces, was formed in 1988 by an Act of Parliament for “providing proximate security to the Prime Minister and former Prime Ministers and members of their immediate families. The need for such a force was felt after assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984.

Dr Singh’s another daughter Amrit Singh stays in the US and was provided with SPG cover whenever she visited India. However, now she will be provided with the Delhi police cover. As per rules, former Prime Ministers and their immediate family members cannot get the SPG cover beyond a year of leaving office unless a yearly assessment on their threat perception warrants it. The elite force has six protectees now — Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former PMs Manmohan Singh and Atal Behari Vajpayee, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Vadra.