Kejriwal not the first to refuse security
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s refusal to accept a security detail continued on Monday when he turned down Z-category cover by the Ghaziabad Police at his home in Kaushambi and said, “I don’t need security, the aam aadmi (common man) needs security”.
Kejriwal’s stance has been lauded by many as the beginning of the end to VIP culture, but he is not the first high-profile politician to say no to security.
Heavyweight UPA leaders such as finance minister P Chidambaram and minister for rural development Jairam Ramesh have consistently turned down requests by the Delhi Police and the Intelligence Bureau to take security.
Chief minister’s Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal), Manik Sarkar (Tripura) and Manohar Parrikar (Goa) have said no to personal security as well.
Jairam Ramesh, who according to intelligence sources is on the Maoist hit list, has zero security. The rural minister told the Hindustan Times: “Kejriwal and his AAP associates feel they are morally superior but for the last eight years since I became a minister, I have had no security whatsoever, no
lal batti ( red beacon) and I don’t even live in a ministerial bungalow.”
Chidambaram, who has just one plain clothes security official accompanying him in his official car, did not have Z-plus cover even as home minister. His close aide told HT that Chidambaram “has been trying to dispense with the plain clothes official for the last 25 years”.