No safety catches

Scared, are you? Come, let’s get you a nice gun to lift your spirits. Can’t afford it, you say? Rubbish, it’s only the legal, government-controlled ones that cost an arm and a leg (but can get you entire bodies in return, my dear). There is a gun for every budget, good old country-made guns that don’t make a hole in your pocket.

Don’t worry — everyone has a right to protect oneself! Why, the government is selling even prohibited guns at subsidised rates to netas with criminal records. Ah, that’s precisely what petrifies you? Don’t be silly, that changes nothing.
Take a look. According to a report released this week, of the 82 members of Parliament given licences of prohibited bore guns in the last decade, 18 had criminal charges against them. Yes, these worthies had been charged with pretty serious stuff, like murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, rioting and the like. Of course not all were as impressive as Atiq Ahmed, one of the several MPs from Uttar Pradesh who got guns from the government. He had 44 criminal cases staring at him, including six for murder, six for attempted murder and some for kidnapping in order to murder. Obviously, in awe of his predatory instincts, the government gave him a powerful new hunting rifle. Apparently for self-protection. These guns, including the prohibited ones, are all given by the government to so-called vulnerable guys so that they can protect themselves.
Apparently, this report reveals the criminalisation of our politics. Really? I don’t see how this particular data, scary as it may seem, proves anything other than the callousness of our government. It only shows what we knew all along — that there are horrible criminals among our rulers, that they like guns, and that the government
doesn’t care enough to stop it. For ages we have known that in our democracy, netas depend on goons to carry them through the voters and into the seat of power. We have known that the police very often play the role of private armies for netas. And that guns
are essential in our politics.
You don’t have to be a sociologist to figure all this out — you just need to breathe in popular culture. Bollywood has been harping on the criminal-politician-police nexus for decades. Making quite a bit of song and dance about how legitimate political power actually comes from the barrel of the gun. And how even one person standing up against it can make a difference.
In the recent presidential elections, for example, of the 4,835 MPs and MLAs voting, 1,448 officially admitted to having criminal cases against them. That makes 31 per cent, or one third of our elected representatives. Of these, 641 MPs or MLAs declared that they were charged with serious crimes like rape, murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, dacoity etc. Almost 500 had murder and attempted murder cases against them. And you know, of course, that most crimes go unreported, especially against politicians. To actually get a criminal case lodged against a neta, or even a neta’s sidekick, is a herculean task for ordinary citizens.
So do we have any doubt about criminalisation of politics when one third of our rulers are criminals? Sure, they must be treated as innocent till proven guilty, and our rickety justice system will keep their cases pending probably till they all die.
Anyway, should the government have sold guns, at a subsidised price, to such MPs? Probably not. Should the sarkar have sold guns that they do not sell to private citizens to MPs and VIPs, as they did? Probably not. Should the sarkar sell guns to MPs in general? Why not? Well, because MPs already get high powered security, which we pay for, so why do they need to also tuck away a gun themselves? Oh come on, the MP has as much a right to personal protection as any other citizen, so give the devil his due. Give him a gun. He has a few anyway, I suspect. Why not have one that is legal and can be traced if used for criminal acts? Besides, how does it matter who owns the gun — whether it is the criminal MP or cops who work for him?
Officially, practically every civilian who owns a gun in India now apparently does so for self defence. Farmers and villagers get it to protect themselves from animals and dacoits. So do people in towns and big cities, it appears. Only a politician or administrator with a bigger threat perception seeks protection from others. With Naxalism and other extremism rocking the country, the government deems it fit to hand out guns to politically important people and let
them deal with it themselves.
Can’t accept this logic of the spaghetti Western? Poor dear, you still expect the state to protect you from baddies, do you? Let me break it gently to you — the state has failed in its role as protector. It has failed so badly that it is changing its gun control laws and quietly giving you the responsibility to protect yourself and your family. Isn’t that kind?
Unfortunately, the sarkar still has a sarkari mindset. So these legal guns are hugely expensive, especially the sophisticated imported ones. And ordinary people still have to depend on illegal guns and bullets. And they do. I believe Delhi has several lakhs of such guns hidden away, and Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are practically studded with them. So many people need protection — what can the poor sarkar do?
But licensed guns — however distasteful and dangerous they may be — are not the real problem. The illegal gun trade that keeps the crime-politics nexus thriving, is. But every political party depends on these goons with guns, so governments stoutly look away.
However, criminalisation of politics is not just about criminal MPs and MLAs. It is about the larger danger to democracy as the state fails to protect its citizens, to ensure the rule of law or even to resist the rising tide of crime in political life. There has been an utter failure of governance and the justice system.
Why else would the state suggest that more and more civilians need arms for self-protection?
Sure, if we all had arms maybe we would not have had the 2002 Gujarat pogrom, or the 1984 Sikh massacre. Maybe the badlands of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are indeed showing the way. To a bloody, dysfunctional democracy. And that is likely to happen as long as Indian politics remains a game of guns and poses.

The writer is editor of The Little Magazine.