Sharad Pawar attacked: Home ministry to review security of all VIPs

NEW DELHI: The home ministry, which decides security cover of VIPs on the basis of 'actual' threat perception, will review security of all ministers in the wake of attack on agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and may increase the number of personal security officers (PSOs) which are given to them considering their 'position'.

At present, most ministers including Pawar are given six PSOs (two each round the clock) and two house guards as part of 'positional' security cover under 'Y' category.

"Though today's incident has nothing to do with giving less or more number of PSOs to ministers, the matter will be reviewed. The ministers may be given additional PSOs for proximate security," said a senior official.

He said there was a need to issue certain dos' and don'ts to police personnel accompanying such VIPs. Necessary instructions will be issued to all state police which provide personnel to VIPs on the basis of their security categorization, he added.

Officials from Press Information Bureau would also be called to ensure the presence of only genuine journalists around a minister at public functions. The move comes in the wake of a Sikh youth, Harvinder Singh, slapping Pawar at a function here.

The review will, incidentally, be done at a time when the home ministry has been cutting down security of VIPs who do not have any 'actual' threat. As part of 'rationalisation' of security cover to VIPs, the ministry has cut down security cover of many ministers, politicians and retired bureaucrats.

Ministers and other individuals facing serious threat are given 'Z+' and 'Z' category security while others get 'X' and 'Y' category. The 'X' category is the lowest among the four in which a protectee gets one PSO round the clock.

Home minister P Chidambaram, meanwhile, met Pawar following the attack on him. He drove down to Pawar's Janpath residence soon after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke to the agriculture minister and condemned the incident.