Cong says govt should explain why security cover to Vadra's mother

The opposition party said the NDA government had provided security to individuals with "interesting backgrounds", including industrialists, powerful corporate brokers and politicians.

New Delhi, May 10: The Congress on Wednesday suggested that it was for the Modi government to explain why the mother of Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, was being provided security, which has become a matter of controversy.

The opposition party said the NDA government had provided security to individuals with "interesting backgrounds", including industrialists, powerful corporate brokers and politicians, and demanded that the list of such people be released.

"It is very interesting that Mr Modi has been in the government for 36 months now and there have been umpteen times when he could have reduced the security (provided to Vadra's mother)," Congress spokesperson Ajoy Kumar said. He was responding when asked to comment on a media report which said that six Delhi Police personnel have been deployed for the last 13 years at Vadra's family home in the posh New Friends Colony where his mother Maureen Vadra resides. "Unless there is a security perception, why is the Modi government continuing the security to her in the first place," Kumar asked. He told the journalists to find about the people who are getting government security, wondering if the Modi government was continuing such benefits "according to the set processes".

"If the government releases the list of all people who have been given security in the past 36 months one could get an interesting list of industrialists, powerful corporate brokers and politicians with very interesting background," the Congress spokesman said. He said the government has decided that politician Amar Singh and yoga guru and businessman Baba Ramdev get security along with protection to the latter's factory.

Kumar claimed the government has also provided security to a number of industrialists and sought to know who they are. Earlier in the day, Vadra hit out at the media over the report. "Really!! We have to stoop to the levels of now demeaning and harassing, elderly people...With all respect, please stop going after my mother...," Vadra said in a Facebook post.

"Please remove my security and anything provided for me... no matter what the assessment, I will take every risk in the book, but lets have some level of decorum....Journalism at the worst I've seen," he said.

PTI