After deciding to withdraw security cover to 30 VIPs in the X category, including former chief justice Y.K. Sabharwal, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Jagdambika Pal and ex-MP Govinda, the home ministry is happy that it has made a good beginning in this long overdue exercise.
With this, the list of X-category protectees has come down to 20 after a detailed review by security and intelligence agencies. The ministry’s next task is to prune the next category. VIP security is broken up into four levels – Z plus for the top of the heap, followed by Z, Y and X categories.
However, those involved in this sensitive exercise feel their real challenge will be to whittle down or even dispense with the bodyguards of a majority of the other 395 VIPs in the capital, many of whom have had this cover purely as a status symbol. After the first cut, the ministry has already been flooded with requests of VIPs to continue their police cover. The million-dollar question is will the ministry yield?
