NSG won’t be pulled into VIP duties anymore

[Daedalus]

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh meeting the NSG Commandos at NSG headquarters in Manesar, Haryana on Tuesday. (Photo: AP)

New Delhi: Putting a brake on politicians and others trying to enter the VIP protectee list of Black Cat commandos, the home ministry has decided not to pull the elite National Security Guards (NSG) into VIP security duties anymore.

Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday visited the NSG headquarters at Manesar in Gurgaon on Tuesday.

Sources said that Mr Singh indicated to the NSG brass that its list of VIP security protectees would not be increased. However, there was no clear decision on pruning the existing list of VIP protectees with the NSG.

Presently, the counter-terror force is guarding 15 VIP protectees.

The NSG guards politicians like senior BJP leaders L.K. Advani, Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa, Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh, DMK chief K. Karunanidhi among others.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that the home minister also discussed with the NSG brass ways to enhance its skills in anti-terror and counter hijacking operations as well as reducing the response time for carrying out such operations.

NSG won’t be pulled into VIP duties anymore

 

[anant_s]

Good move, other than where situation really warrants such as specific intelligence threats, putting these elite men on guarding politicians is an utter waste of already scarce resource. A lot of names mentioned above already have a multi tiered security ring and that must be sufficient for all practical purposes. The problem is a lot of people given this facility think of it as Status symbol and create a huge hue and cry on any mention of withdrawal.

 

[livingdead]

Is it not one of their main job?

 

[Abingdonboy]

Is it not one of their main job?

Nope it was NEVER part of their mandate. The NSG was raised on the lines of GSG-9 as CT force, it later became "in vogue" by the VVIPs to be guarded by them (NSG smartly raised the SRG which was not trained for CT ops but purely as a VVIP protection force) and then things got out of control (SRG grew and eventually outnumbered the SAG). Now things are getting back to how they should be- SRG is being trimmed back to bare minimum, NSG cover being barred on any other VVIP and withdrawn where possible (/outsourced to the CAPFs) and SAG given the attention it needs.

@Topic old (about a month) but still welcome news.

 

[IND151]

Nope it was NEVER part of their mandate. The NSG was raised on the lines of GSG-9 as CT force, it later became "in vogue" by the VVIPs to be guarded by them (NSG smartly raised the SRG which was not trained for CT ops but purely as a VVIP protection force) and then things got out of control (SRG grew and eventually outnumbered the SAG). Now things are getting back to how they should be- SRG is being trimmed back to bare minimum, NSG cover being barred on any other VVIP and withdrawn where possible (/outsourced to the CAPFs) and SAG given the attention it needs.

@Topic old (about a month) but still welcome news.

What is SRG?

 

[Abingdonboy]

What is SRG?

NSG is split into two wings (broadly- there are other wings like training and admin and such but that isn't relevant) SAG and SRG.

SAG= Special Action Group, this is the unit/wing 100% drawn from the Indian Army and are the "shooters" trained in CT/intervention/Counter-hijacking

SRG= Special Ranger Group, this is the unit/wing drawn 100% from the CAPFs (BSF, CRPF, ITBP etc) and is solely charged with VVIP protection and trained for such.

There is a wrong perception that the NSG operators you see guarding VVIPs are the same ones who would be used in CT operations- this is patently false.

 

[hkdas]

Sources said that Mr Singh indicated to the NSG brass that its list of VIP security protectees would not be increased. However, there was no clear decision on pruning the existing list of VIP protectees with the NSG.

guys.. it only says the list of protectees won't be increased...
SRG will continue their duty to provide protections to thieves and also continue to waste money allotted for NSG!!

 

[Nova2]

Better withdraw protection for those others mentioned above aswell. Let SRG protect these money eating beings.

 

[Kloitra]

Better withdraw protection for those others mentioned above aswell. Let SRG protect these money eating beings.

SRG is one of the parts of NSG.

 

[Abingdonboy]

Better withdraw protection for those others mentioned above aswell. Let SRG protect these money eating beings.

SRG is one of the parts of NSG.

Exactly!

Give the job to some other CAPFs ( CISF is taking over the NSG's VVIp protection duties in some cases) and reduce the SRG to almost zero.

 

[Kloitra]

Exactly!

Give the job to some other CAPFs ( CISF is taking over the NSG's VVIp protection duties in some cases) and reduce the SRG to almost zero.

What difference would it make if SRG is raised specifically for this purpose? The only difference would be of name. Infact, it would be more inefficient to take the work from specialized force and give it to general one.

 

[Abingdonboy]

What difference would it make if SRG is raised specifically for this purpose? The only difference would be of name. Infact, it would be more inefficient to take the work from specialized force and give it to general one.

The problem here is that SRG is a part of the NSG which means for every additional SRG operator the NSG has less to spend on the SAG and the SAG is the "true" NSG i.e. the force trained and tasked to carry out the NSG's original mandate. This VVIP protection nonsense was never meant to be one of the NSG's roles and should now be removed altogether as an option. My hope is that now the NSG have said they won't cover more than the present 15 protectees and the MHA have agreed, as these 15 people gradually leave positions of power and or become ineligible for Z+ security that they won't be replaced by other protectees rather over time the number of people the NSG have to protect winds down to 0.

As such I welcome this news entirely:

CISF prepares to become NSG substitute for VIP security!!