BOTH MANEKA Gandhi and her son, Varun, have made his security an issue, citing the arrest of six sharpshooters of Chhota Shakeel gang. The men, it is claimed, were planning to kill Varun's lawyer defending him in the hate speech case.

While Maneka shot off a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, alleging that Home Minister P. Chidambaram was not taking the "threats" to her son's life seriously. "The home ministry has taken these threats very casually - it is as if you want Varun Gandhi to be killed," she said.

"The home minister told me he cannot protect everyone in this country," said Maneka, the BJP Member of Parliament from Aonla in Uttar Pradesh. "It is with the deepest concern for my son's life and safety that I write to you today," she said in her letter.

In a separate statement, Varun said asked the Centre to give him more security. Though he was not intimidated by such cowardly threats, strong precautions must be taken to defeat the desperate designs of extremist elements, he said.

"The arrest of Chhota Shakeel's men exemplifies exactly the kind of terror and violence against which I stand and have been warning against," said Varun, who faces several legal cases for allegedly making communal speeches in Pilibhit in the run up to the Lok Sabha elections.