Most are in the Y-category, which comes with a personal security officer (PSO) and a house guard. Several recent additions, like former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati who have got Z-category security, appear to have been guided more by politics than security concerns.

The list also includes Gen N C Vij, who was Director-General of Military Operations during the Kargil conflict. Maninderjit Singh Bitta has had it since a militant attack when he was Indian Youth Congress president. Uttar Pradesh Congress leader Pramod Tiwari also gets security cover.

This, after the Union Home Ministry admitted in Delhi High Court last August that those seeking protection “overplay” the level of threat to become eligible for government accommodation and that such cases would “not be recommended.”

The court, which is hearing a PIL by advocate Rajeev Awasthi on law and order in Delhi, had been told of two important decisions taken as part of the New Policy on Security of Individuals in 2000:

• “No security will hence forth be provided merely on the ground that the person concerned has occupied a sensitive position in the past. In all cases where purely positional security has been provided to an individual, the same shall be withdrawn on demission of the concerned office by him.”

• The Ministry also told the court the threat “should predominantly come from militants or terrorists”, and conceded that “in public perception, VIP security had tended to connote a picture more of a VIP than security. Often protectees were themselves found to entertain such perception and demand special privileges.”

The court, which termed VVIP security “distasteful, obtrusive and obnoxious for the common people”, had directed the Ministry to inform it of steps taken in cases where security threats had been “overplayed”, if there were instances of security being downgraded. The response of the Ministry, which says it is in the process of a comprehensive review of VIP security, is still awaited.

In the meantime, police forces have begun complaining. A look at some figures could show why. The Capital has 391 VVIP and VIP protectees. And over 9,000 personnel, mainly from Delhi Police, supplemented by hundreds of paramilitary personnel drawn from forces like the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), provide what’s being increasingly seen as a status symbol for many.

Figures with the Delhi Police show that of the nearly 60,000 personnel at its disposal, over 7,000 are deployed for VIP security. “Even Police Control Room vans are positioned in such a manner that VIP houses are accessible at all times,” an officer admitted.

Official sources said just a single paramilitary force, the CRPF, has had to deploy nearly 1,000 men for “house security” of 132 VIPs in the capital. This does not include the 195 deployed to secure the houses of 14 VVIPs, who enjoy a higher level of security.

Technically, the threat perception of all the protectees is subject to periodic reviews by the Home Ministry. In reality, as a senior officer admits, “there are hardly any cases of security being downgraded or removed.”

In fact, going through the joint list of 391 VVIPs and VIPs prepared by Delhi Police and the ministry, the High Court had remarked, “We cannot appreciate this. You have made a mockery of the threat perception.”

-(with Amandeep Shukla)