RTI query: Has the SPG become a Hindu outfit?

Times of India: New Delhi: Sunday, July 20, 2014.

Has the SPG tasked with protecting the Prime Minister and his family recruited people from only a specific community or religion after the assassination of former PM Indira Gandhi?

This was an RTI query filed by Gurgaon resident Aseem Takyar. The controversial application was rejected by the Central Information Commission (CIC) on the grounds that the Special Protection Group (SPG) was an exempted organization and the information sought was neither related to a human rights violation nor allegations of corruption under section 24(1).

Takyar also sought to know whether it was a human rights violation to recruit personnel only from one community and demanded a list of police personnel recruited in the SPG from each religion and community.

According to the RTI Act section 24(1) the SPG is an exempted organization "provided that the information pertaining to the allegations of corruption and human rights violations shall not be excluded". The section also says that if it is a case of allegations of human rights violation the information shall only be provided after the approval of the CIC and within 45 days from the date of receiving the application.

Takyar filed an appeal with the appellate authority, which was also rejected. He then filed a second appeal with the CIC. Hearing the issue, chief information commissioner Rajiv Mathur directed: "The commission sees no merit in the submissions made by the appellant. The SPG is an exempted organization under section 24 of the RTI act and hence we find no reason to interfere with the orders of the CPIO/appellate authority."

Former PM Indira Gandhi was shot down by two of her bodyguards in October 1984 in the aftermath of Operation Blue Star, where the Indian army stormed the Golden Temple the holiest Sikh shrine to take out terrorists holed up inside.