The Union Home Ministry is all set to provide ‘Z’ category security to Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani. The upgrade of the security to Smriti, comes as a result of student protests against her after the death of the Dalit student Rohith Vemula last month at the University of Hyderabad.
Currently, Ms. Irani is entitled to Y-category security as she is a Cabinet Minister. Under the Z category, being planned by the Government, 20 security men would guard her at any given time.
The Hindu quoted a top government official as saying that, “There have been reports that her security was found to be inadequate due to the sudden protests by students, and some miscreants may take advantage of these protests and try to harm her.”
Presently, only few Cabinet Ministers and State Ministes enjoy either Z or Z-plus security. Few mmnisters who enjoy Z-plus security are Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Ministers of State Kiren Rijiju and Jitendra Singh. Even, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and BJP president Amit Shah enjoy Z-plus security.
An official said, “VIP security is granted on the basis of threat perception. Amid reports that the HRD Minister’s cordon could be compromised, we are considering to extend Z-category security to her.”
Two Committees review and decide on security level. First one is the Protection Review Group, while the other one is the Security Categorization Committee. The Home Secretary heads both the committees and others include officials of the Intelligence Bureau.
-Sumana
