Centre refuses Modi SPG cover, BJP accuses Centre

Centre refuses Modi SPG cover, BJP sees red

BJP accuses Centre, Bihar govt of failure to prevent Patna blasts that were "aimed at liquidating" their prime ministerial candidate

PTI

New Delhi: Seeking to inject politics, the BJP on Wednesday accused the Centre and the Bihar government of failure to prevent the Patna blasts that were "aimed at liquidating" Narendra Modi and demanded upgrading of security for him.

However, the Centre rejected BJP's charge and said adequate and required security has been given to Modi ruling out SPG cover because it needs legal amendment.

The morning after the BJP Parliamentary Board passed a resolution saying the blasts was an attempt to liquidate the BJP leaders present, BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar held the Centre and the Nitish Kumar government responsible for the "murderous attack" on Modi in Patna.

Citing the blasts and media reports that there is a heightened threat to its prime ministerial candidate, he alleged that there was "gross negligence" on the part the two governments as even standard operating procedures for security like frisking, sanitisation of the area and metal detectors were not used at the Patna rally.

"We cannot do politics on terror. The country has lost two Prime Ministers due to terrorism and we should learn lessons from this.

"We hope the Centre will take note of the threat to Narendra Modi and not do politics on the issue of security. We demand that Modi be provided adequate security," he said.

SECURITY AS PER THREAT PERCEPTION

Ruling out SPG cover for Modi as demanded by his party, Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said SPG was provided according to the law of the country.

Reacting to BJP's charge, Minister of State for Home R P N Singh said security for Modi has already been tightened.

"We have given him (Modi) NSG security which is very high level of security. We have also ordered conducting advance security drill before his visit to any place," Singh said.

Singh said security to a person is given according to his or her threat perception and the cover for Modi has been provided according to his threat perception.

BJP ALLEGES GLARING LAPSES

Javadekar maintained that the lapses in security at the October 27 rally were "glaring" and these should not be repeated. The main Opposition also insisted that the involvement of terror groups as also Pakistan and ISI should be probed by the government.

"The attack was planned and part of a conspiracy to liquidate Modi, BJP President Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and the top party leadership of Bihar. The terrorists wanted to kill these leaders and also cause a stampede," Javadekar said.