Security measures annoy Indian PM's wife

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's estranged wife has questioned the government's decision to provide her with gun-toting bodyguards around the clock, even when she travels in rickety three-wheeled taxis.

Jashodaben Modi, 62, who lives in Gujarat state, said she filed a petition to find out why she has been given security cover since Modi was elected in May.

"I am surrounded by five security guards all the time. Often my relatives or I have to cook for them. My sister-in-law has to make their beds. This is a bit annoying," she told Reuters on Tuesday by telephone.

"You see it gets really chaotic when I have to travel, because I use public transport, and the guards are following me in an air-conditioned car."

Modi's wife is a retired primary schoolteacher who has lived with her brothers since her husband separated from her about 45 years ago, when they were both teenagers.

She has never considered seeking a divorce and leads a life immersed in prayer for Modi's well-being. She was thrown into the national spotlight when Modi, after years of silence, disclosed his marriage in an election filing earlier this year.

The prime minister has never spoken about his wife, but friends and relatives say the couple were married under a family arrangement, a tradition at the time, especially among the poor.

Modi left home soon afterward, and was drawn into the ascetic life of the Hindu nationalist volunteer group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, many of whose top leaders practiced celibacy to focus on the organization's cause of nation-building.

Jashodaben's brother, Ashok Modi, said he supported her decision to file a request seeking information about her security detail under the Right to Information Act.

"The commandos assigned to guard my sister have no official order by which they have been posted at my residence," he said.

The Special Protection Group, an elite force modeled on the Secret Service that guards US presidents, is responsible by law for the security of the prime minister and his immediate family members.

(China Daily 11/26/2014 page11)