BJP, Congress spar after CRPF flags Rahul's 'unscheduled' trips abroad

A Z+ security cover protectee with a family history bloodied by the assassinations of his father, Rajiv Gandhi, and grandmother, Indira Gandhi, both former prime ministers, Lok Sabha’s Leader of Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, has never been a stickler for following security protocols.

Now, a letter by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) highlighting instances of Rahul consistently breaching security protocols meant for VIPs granted Z+ security cover, with Advanced Security Liaison (ASL), has become the latest flashpoint between the Congress party and the ruling BJP.

The Z+ security cover with ASL is the highest category of VIP security provided by the CRPF to a select few individuals based on a periodic assessment of threat to their life and also, in most cases, the constitutional posts they hold.

Leaked to media outlets

The letter, reportedly signed by CRPF’s Inspector General in-charge of VIP Security, Sunil Joon, was leaked to select media outlets on Thursday (September 11), a day after it was sent to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi. The letter reportedly highlights Rahul’s “unscheduled movements without intimation” both within the country and abroad and stresses that the Lok Sabha’s Leader of Opposition was “not taking seriously” security protocols listed in the ‘Yellow Book’ for Z+ security cover protectees.

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The ‘Yellow Book’ mandates that individuals provided Z+ security cover with ASL provide prior intimation to the CRPF’s VIP security wing about their movements, including foreign travel, so that adequate security arrangements can be made for them. The security cover Rahul is entitled to include up to 12 armed CRPF commandos who are meant to provide him ‘proximate security cover’ whenever he is mobile, while the Advanced Security Liaison mandates his security team to conduct advance reconnaissance of locations he is scheduled to visit.

Report warns of potential risks

According to NDTV and news agency ANI, the letter referred to Rahul’s visits to Italy (December 30 to January 9), Vietnam (March 12 to 17), Dubai (April 17 to 23), Qatar (June 11 to 18), London (June 25 to July 6), and, most recently, to Malaysia (September 4 to 8), while claiming that the Lok Sabha LoP had gone on each of these trips “without informing anyone”. According to ANI, Joon also urged Rahul to ensure strict adherence to the security protocols in the future, asserting that the breaches by him “weaken the effectiveness of VVIP security arrangements” and “expose him to potential risks”.

The letter highlights Rahul’s “unscheduled movements without intimation” both within the country and abroad and stresses that the Lok Sabha’s Leader of Opposition was “not taking seriously” security protocols

While this isn’t the first time that the CRPF has highlighted instances of Rahul violating security protocols, the fact that Joon’s letter was leaked to the media even before Kharge or Rahul could respond to it has left the Congress party bristling with anger. The BJP, on the other hand, has latched on to the letter to question why Rahul was in the habit of breaking long-established security protocols and if his refusal to inform the CRPF of his movements was because he was “hiding something”.

Act of intimidation, says Congress

Although Kharge and Rahul haven’t reacted yet to the letter being leaked to the press, Congress’s media and publicity department chief Pawan Khera said the “timing of the CRPF’s letter and its instant public release raise disturbing questions”. Calling both the letter and it being leaked a “veiled attempt to intimidate” Rahul, Khera pointed out that the communiqué from the CRPF coincides with the LoP “leading the charge against the BJP’s Vote Chori carried out with the Election Commission’s complicity”.

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“Is this a veiled attempt to intimidate the Leader of Opposition, who has already announced another imminent disclosure? Is the government rattled by the truth he is about to reveal,” Khera questioned on X.

Meanwhile, the BJP’s IT Cell chief Amit Malviya shared the ANI report about the CRPF’s letter to Kharge and Rahul on X and wrote, “CRPF flags breach of security protocol by Rahul Gandhi. Under the Yellow Book protocol, individuals under high-category security are required to provide prior intimation about their movements, including foreign travel, to enable deployment. Rahul doesn’t…” (sic).

Questions about leakage of letter

A Congress Lok Sabha MP considered close to Rahul claimed that the letter was “leaked to select media outlets even before Rahul Gandhi could see it and the BJP instantly picked it up to give the issue its usual spin... from what I have read in the same reports, I understand that the letter is dated September 10 which is the same day when he (Rahul) left for his constituency and he is still in Rae Bareli. The Congress president, too, was in Gujarat on September 10. So who leaked the letter and with what purpose?”

Khera, meanwhile, also likened former Union minister and BJP MP Anurag Thakur’s “if something happens (to Rahul)” comment to a “threat by the BJP”. Reacting to the leaked letter, Thakur had said that Kharge must take the CRPF’s letter “very seriously” and “direct” Rahul to follow security protocols, adding “if something happens; somebody will breach but someone else will suffer”.