Imagine, if you will, the kind of outcry that would occur in the United States if the government sent a Secret Service detail to protect Melinda Gates, wife of Bill Gates.
That explains a bit of the furor that in India this week after a Hindustan Times report that the Indian government was dispatching a team of elite commandos to protect Nita Ambani, the socialite wife of India’s richest man.
Her husband, Mukesh Ambani, an oil and gas magnate worth $21 billion, has had a government security escort since 2013, when he was the subject of terror threats, and covers the costs himself.
But in a country where there is a shortage of police officers, the news about 10 additional officers for the wife rankled.
“Women raped daily in Delhi. No security for them despite repeated requests. But [Prime Minister] providing security to his friends,” Delhi’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, said in a tweet.
The government said that a threat assessment report by central security agencies deemed Nita Ambani’s protection necessary, according to the Hindustan Times report.
Nita Ambani, 52, is an art collector and serves on the board of directors of her husband’s company and chair of its charity wing.
The couple live in a famous 27-story home in Mumbai that has a ballroom, a movie theater and six parking levels and has been featured in Vanity Fair.
The news re-ignited the debate of “VIP privilege” in India, where in recent years ordinary citizens have begun to chafe against what they see as undue perks given the rich and famous, who are whisked through airport waiting lines, ride in motorcades that clog traffic and, in the case of politicians, live in luxury government-assigned bungalows. The data site IndiaSpend estimated in 2013 that in India, which is about half a million policemen short, an estimated 47,000 policeman are dispatched to protect 14,842 VIPs.
– The Washington Post
The post India Sends Elite Commandos To Guard Billionaire’s Wife; Outrage Ensues appeared first on News India Times.