Priyanka Gandhi unfazed by family losing Special Protection Group cover after 28 years, says 'it's politics and this keeps happening'

New Delhi: Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday dubbed the removal of SPG cover from the Gandhi family part of politics which keeps happening.

Talking to reporters at the party headquarters, she also said the country’s economy is in a “bad state” and there is a “severe slowdown”, to which the Congress has been drawing the government’s attention, and the Centre must do something about it.

To reporters’ query on removal of Special Protection Group (SPG) cover from the Gandhi family, the Congress leader simply replied, “It’s politics and this keeps happening.”

On 11 November, the CRPF took over security duties of Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi, Rahul and Priyanka.

The Gandhis are now without SPG protection after 28 years. They were included in the VVIP security list following an amendment in September, 1991 in the SPG Act of 1988. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is now the only person to be protected by the around 4,000-strong SPG security.

The CRPF, the designated lead force for conducting anti-Naxal operations and internal security tasks in the country, has about 52 other VVIPs under its cover, including Union home minister Amit Shah, former prime minister Manmohan Singh and RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani and his wife Neeta Ambani.

With inputs from agencies