New Delhi:
Former UP Chief Minister Mayawati has written to the Prime Minister asking for more security because of an alleged threat to her life.
BSP leaders in Delhi said they did not want to share details of the perceived threat.
After Mayawati lost the state elections in May this year, her security was reduced by the new government headed by Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party. But because she is a Former Chief Minister, she still has Z+ category security - that means she has an entourage that includes 28 members of the National Security Guard and other commandos. 12 home-guards are assigned to shadow her wherever she goes. Six wireless operators will track her movement. A pilot car will lead her motorcase which will include a bullet-proof ambassador for Mayawati and five other vehicles to transport her security personnel.
However, now removed from the motorcade is a customized ambulance with a life support system that was specifically designed for her when she was Chief Minister.
A vehicle that was equipped with a jammer to block mobile and other communication signals where she travelled will no longer be a part of her motorcade.
During her term as Chief Minister, Mayawati's concerns about her security, described often as bordering on paranoia, were well-documented because she made no attempt to underplay them. She travelled from her home in Lucknow to the state assembly through a road that nobody else was allowed to use.
Last year, a cable posted on WikiLeaks sent by US diplomats in India to the US State Department also focused on her security concerns. Diplomats wrote that local journalists said the then Chief Minister "has become a virtual paranoid dictator replete with food tasters and a security entourage to rival a head of state."
Referring to her "eccentric paranoia," the cable said, "According to Lucknow journalists, she employs nine cooks (two to cook, the others to watch over them) and two food tasters. She fears assassination and demanded from the central government the highest level of protection available. In addition to this outsized security apparatus, she constructed a private road from her residence to her office, which is cleaned immediately after her multiple vehicle convoy reaches its destination."
BSP leaders in Delhi said they did not want to share details of the perceived threat.
After Mayawati lost the state elections in May this year, her security was reduced by the new government headed by Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party. But because she is a Former Chief Minister, she still has Z+ category security - that means she has an entourage that includes 28 members of the National Security Guard and other commandos. 12 home-guards are assigned to shadow her wherever she goes. Six wireless operators will track her movement. A pilot car will lead her motorcase which will include a bullet-proof ambassador for Mayawati and five other vehicles to transport her security personnel.
However, now removed from the motorcade is a customized ambulance with a life support system that was specifically designed for her when she was Chief Minister.
A vehicle that was equipped with a jammer to block mobile and other communication signals where she travelled will no longer be a part of her motorcade.
During her term as Chief Minister, Mayawati's concerns about her security, described often as bordering on paranoia, were well-documented because she made no attempt to underplay them. She travelled from her home in Lucknow to the state assembly through a road that nobody else was allowed to use.
Last year, a cable posted on WikiLeaks sent by US diplomats in India to the US State Department also focused on her security concerns. Diplomats wrote that local journalists said the then Chief Minister "has become a virtual paranoid dictator replete with food tasters and a security entourage to rival a head of state."
Referring to her "eccentric paranoia," the cable said, "According to Lucknow journalists, she employs nine cooks (two to cook, the others to watch over them) and two food tasters. She fears assassination and demanded from the central government the highest level of protection available. In addition to this outsized security apparatus, she constructed a private road from her residence to her office, which is cleaned immediately after her multiple vehicle convoy reaches its destination."
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