Govt dismisses Rahul’s comment on SPG as ‘baseless’

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 24

In a fresh controversy on Monday, the government contradicted Congress president Rahul Gandhi who on Saturday said that the former SPG Chief had quit his post because he was being forced to fill the skilled force with RSS recruits.

Gandhi made these comments during his interaction with some 3,000 professors and teachers at Siri Fort auditorium on Saturday as part of his civil outreach.

Refuting Gandhi, the Ministry of Home on Monday issued a statement saying it had verified the matter with the former SPG Chief who denied ever having had any such conversation with Gandhi.

“It has been reported that Rahul Gandhi, during an interaction at New Delhi on Saturday, had commented that the SPG Chief appointed by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had to quit because he refused to accept a list of SPG officers handpicked by the RSS. The matter has been verified. The officer in question Vivek Srivastava, former Director, Special Protection Group (SPG), has specifically averred that he did not have any such conversation with Rahul Gandhi at any point of time,” an MHA statement said.

The government quoted the officer saying that as part of his professional duties he interacted with SPG protectees; however, he categorically said that during his interaction with Gandhi, there was no talk whatsoever regarding the appointment of a new Director, or the reasons for his leaving SPG.

“SPG is a professional organisation, which takes its task of protecting serving Prime Ministers, former Prime Ministers and their families entrusted to its security, very seriously and in the highest professional spirit. The comment reportedly made by Gandhi through the media is baseless, devoid of fact and unfortunate, coming from an SPG protectee,” the MHA said.