A series of blasts targeted Narendra Modi’s rally in Patna last month, killing six people and injuring 83 others.
The government and the main opposition party, the BJP, feuded openly today about whether security for
Narendra Modi, who is running for Prime Minister, should be upgraded. A glut of bomb blasts targeted a rally held by Mr Modi in Patna last month. Six people were killed and 83 injured
"Security is given on threat perception, not on who is declared the Prime Ministerial candidate. I want to tell the NDA (the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance) that Rajiv Gandhi wasn't given the security of even a sub-inspector. Maybe that's why he lost his life," said RPN Singh, junior Home Minister.
But Mr Gandhi was assassinated in 1991, seven years before the NDA came to power. The caretaker government in 1991 was headed by Chandrasekhar.
The Patna bomb blasts ended just before Mr Modi arrived at a large public park in the heart of the city to address tens of thousands of supporters.
Mr Modi is guarded by the Gujarat police and the National Security Guard, whose commandos are offered to chief ministers seen as high-risk targets like J Jayalalithaa.
After the Patna blasts, the BJP has said that Mr Modi should be guarded by the elite Special Protection Group which handles the security of the Prime Minister and Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her children.
"He is a prime terrorist target and the government knows this - still they are not doing anything," said BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar. (
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After Mr Modi was declared the BJP's choice for prime minister in September, central intelligence agencies warned that different groups were prepping to target him.
After the bomb blasts in Patna, the Centre decided that when he travels, his security arrangements will be closely coordinated between central intelligence agencies, the Gujarat Police and National Security Guard commandos who escort him, and the government of the state that is hosting him. This Advanced Security Liaison or ASL is similar to how the PM's security is handled.