MPs Delegation goes to PM to protest against the Arms Policy
Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 3:48 pm
Wednesday, August 18, 2010. NEW DELHI: Last week Shri. Digvijay Singh (Patron in Chief NAGRI) sought appointment for a NAGRI delegation to meet with the Hon'able Prime Minister of India, to present the objections of ordinary Indian citizens to the new Arms Policy, which was notified by the Ministry of Home Affairs on the 31st of March 2010. The Prime Minister's Office approved a time slot for 12 noon 18th August at the Prime Minister's chambers in Parliament House.
The initial plan was that Shri. Digvijay Singh ji and Shri. Rahoul Rai (President NAGRI) would take along with them three MPs who had already been in touch with Shri. Rahoul Rai regarding this issue. However, once we reached Parliament House, on finding out the reason for which the delegation was going to meet the Hon'able Prime Minister, many more MPs expressed their desire to join the delegation and express their solidarity against the new Arms Policy & proposed amendments to the Arms Act.
The final group who were part of the delegation were:
Shri. Digvijay Singh (Secretary General Congress Party) - Patron in Chief NAGRI
Shri. Jaswant Singh (MP - BJP)
Shri. S.S. Ahluwalia (MP - BJP)
Shri. Naveen Jindal (MP - Congress)
Shri. Rao Inderjeet Singh (MP - Congress)
Shri. Anil Lad (MP - Congress)
Shri. Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh (MP - Samajwadi Party)
Dr. Sanjay Singh (MP - Congress)
Shri. Francisco Sardinhia (MP - Congress)
Shri. Manish Tiwary (MP - Congress)
Shri. Shahnawaz Hussain (MP - BJP)
Shri. Rakesh Singh (MP - BJP)
Shri. Rahoul Rai - President NAGRI
Shri. Abhijeet Singh - Secretary General NAGRI
The spontaneous positive response shown by every MP, cutting across all party lines or political affiliations, was overwhelming and clearly underlined how emotive and important the two issues of citizen's right to keep & bear arms and right of self defence, truly are. While we waited for the Hon'able Prime Minister to arrive, the MPs took the opportunity to discuss amongst themselves the adverse impact this policy would have on the average citizen, especially those who live in small towns & rural areas.
On the Prime Minister's arrival, Shri. Digvijay Singh ji first introduced everyone and then while apprising him of the reasons for our requesting time with him, handed over the signed petition. Shri. S.S. Ahluwalia & Shri. Naveen Jindal (both members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee - Home Affairs) then proceeded to brief the Prime Minister on how the draft arms policy was first published in December on the MHA website, the various discussions that had taken place within the committee, including the several objections they had raised and communicated to the Ministry of Home Affairs. They also described how the Ministry went ahead and notified the policy despite their objections and while the committee was still in the process of finalising it's recommendations regarding the arms policy - thus bypassing all norms & procedures. How in the guise of making police verification mandatory and creating a national database, several other drastic changes to how the law is practically enforced - were being surreptitiously implemented.
Shri. Naveen Jindal also cited crime statistics which irrefutably prove that legal firearms are almost never used in the commission of crimes.
Shri. Rao Inderjit Singh added that all these changes in the Arms Act did not affect the unlicenced weapons and that is where all the crime was being perpetrated from.
Shri. Digvijay Singh then outlined in detail how arms licensees were needlessly harassed every three years, at the time of license renewal AND how the new policy requirement of a fresh police verification every six years (every alternate renewal cycle) would only serve to increase this harassment as well as corruption - without serving any useful purpose. He mentioned how the Arms Act already provided for the cancellation of Arms License in case of any violation by the license holder. He went further to say that this whole renewal process was nothing but a waste of resources and a hotbed of corruption & harassment. He suggested that the government seriously consider issuing licenses that were valid for the lifetime of the license holder and maybe a higher fee could be charged for this increased validity.
Shri. Jaswant Singh gave the Prime Minister a brief outline of how the British introduced arms control in India after 1857 - with the only objective of disarming the entire nation, as they feared another Indian uprising. He contrasted this with the erstwhile Rajputana States, which were not directly part of British India and thus did not have the Arms Act 1878 apply to them. People in that area were completely free to keep & bear arms, yet there was no unusually high violent crime rate reported in that area. He said that carrying on with British era colonial policies, which were meant to disarm & enslave the populace was grossly inappropriate in a democratic republic. He went on to say that arms were required by citizens as they were the only means they had with which to defend themselves against violent crime, furthermore criminals were NOT going to care about the Arms Act/ Arms Policy restrictions and ALL the government was doing was in effect disarming law abiding citizens who wished to stay within the purview of the law.
Shri. Anil Lad expanded on this, citing the example of coffee planters in his home state, who lived on the plantation, which more often than not are usually located several hours away from the nearest police post. He asked, if they were disarmed, how would these planters be able to protect themselves/ their families/ their property?
To this, Shri Manish Tiwary added, even if the police could get there within 15 minutes, that time was sufficient for criminals to cause serious harm/ death. Also, this all would presuppose that the victims were able to alert the police at all.
All present lamented the Government's move to limit All India Validity to just VIPs. They questioned whether a person's chances of being a victim of crime were limited to his/ her own state/ district? It was suggested by all that perhaps the time a person is most vulnerable is when he/ she is travelling cross-country by road/ rail.
The restrictions on ammunition quotas and the new requirement of accounting for every single round of ammunition as to when/ where/ for what purpose the license holder used it, also came up for discussion. It was everyone's consensus that this was simply impractical and would only lead to harassment of the license holder and widespread corruption.
After hearing everyone's views in detail, the Hon'able Prime Minister said that this matter had indeed come up for discussion before the cabinet. However, he admitted he had never owned a firearm himself and was unfamiliar with the issues involved, despite this he had put several questions to the Home Minister in this regard - to which he added that the Home Minister had put forward rather convincing arguments. He then went on to say, that the points & issues raised by the delegation were well thought out logical ones and he would definitely take the time to read the entire document, before forwarding with his notes to the Ministry. The Prime Minister then asked why we had not taken this up directly with the Home Minister, to which Shri. Digvijay Singh responded that we had indeed requested the Home Minister for an audience as well, but since the appointment with the Prime Minister came through first we were meeting with him.
Shri. Digvijay Singh and all MPs in the delegation then thanked the Prime Minister for taking out time to give them the opportunity to air their views on the new Arms Policy/ proposed amendments to the Arms Act/ Arms Rules.
Once the Prime Minister left, the delegation dispersed. Shri. Rahoul Rai and Shri. Anil Lad then met with some of the press present at the parliament and apprised them of what had taken place, who all were present etc.
The initial plan was that Shri. Digvijay Singh ji and Shri. Rahoul Rai (President NAGRI) would take along with them three MPs who had already been in touch with Shri. Rahoul Rai regarding this issue. However, once we reached Parliament House, on finding out the reason for which the delegation was going to meet the Hon'able Prime Minister, many more MPs expressed their desire to join the delegation and express their solidarity against the new Arms Policy & proposed amendments to the Arms Act.
The final group who were part of the delegation were:
Shri. Digvijay Singh (Secretary General Congress Party) - Patron in Chief NAGRI
Shri. Jaswant Singh (MP - BJP)
Shri. S.S. Ahluwalia (MP - BJP)
Shri. Naveen Jindal (MP - Congress)
Shri. Rao Inderjeet Singh (MP - Congress)
Shri. Anil Lad (MP - Congress)
Shri. Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh (MP - Samajwadi Party)
Dr. Sanjay Singh (MP - Congress)
Shri. Francisco Sardinhia (MP - Congress)
Shri. Manish Tiwary (MP - Congress)
Shri. Shahnawaz Hussain (MP - BJP)
Shri. Rakesh Singh (MP - BJP)
Shri. Rahoul Rai - President NAGRI
Shri. Abhijeet Singh - Secretary General NAGRI
The spontaneous positive response shown by every MP, cutting across all party lines or political affiliations, was overwhelming and clearly underlined how emotive and important the two issues of citizen's right to keep & bear arms and right of self defence, truly are. While we waited for the Hon'able Prime Minister to arrive, the MPs took the opportunity to discuss amongst themselves the adverse impact this policy would have on the average citizen, especially those who live in small towns & rural areas.
On the Prime Minister's arrival, Shri. Digvijay Singh ji first introduced everyone and then while apprising him of the reasons for our requesting time with him, handed over the signed petition. Shri. S.S. Ahluwalia & Shri. Naveen Jindal (both members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee - Home Affairs) then proceeded to brief the Prime Minister on how the draft arms policy was first published in December on the MHA website, the various discussions that had taken place within the committee, including the several objections they had raised and communicated to the Ministry of Home Affairs. They also described how the Ministry went ahead and notified the policy despite their objections and while the committee was still in the process of finalising it's recommendations regarding the arms policy - thus bypassing all norms & procedures. How in the guise of making police verification mandatory and creating a national database, several other drastic changes to how the law is practically enforced - were being surreptitiously implemented.
Shri. Naveen Jindal also cited crime statistics which irrefutably prove that legal firearms are almost never used in the commission of crimes.
Shri. Rao Inderjit Singh added that all these changes in the Arms Act did not affect the unlicenced weapons and that is where all the crime was being perpetrated from.
Shri. Digvijay Singh then outlined in detail how arms licensees were needlessly harassed every three years, at the time of license renewal AND how the new policy requirement of a fresh police verification every six years (every alternate renewal cycle) would only serve to increase this harassment as well as corruption - without serving any useful purpose. He mentioned how the Arms Act already provided for the cancellation of Arms License in case of any violation by the license holder. He went further to say that this whole renewal process was nothing but a waste of resources and a hotbed of corruption & harassment. He suggested that the government seriously consider issuing licenses that were valid for the lifetime of the license holder and maybe a higher fee could be charged for this increased validity.
Shri. Jaswant Singh gave the Prime Minister a brief outline of how the British introduced arms control in India after 1857 - with the only objective of disarming the entire nation, as they feared another Indian uprising. He contrasted this with the erstwhile Rajputana States, which were not directly part of British India and thus did not have the Arms Act 1878 apply to them. People in that area were completely free to keep & bear arms, yet there was no unusually high violent crime rate reported in that area. He said that carrying on with British era colonial policies, which were meant to disarm & enslave the populace was grossly inappropriate in a democratic republic. He went on to say that arms were required by citizens as they were the only means they had with which to defend themselves against violent crime, furthermore criminals were NOT going to care about the Arms Act/ Arms Policy restrictions and ALL the government was doing was in effect disarming law abiding citizens who wished to stay within the purview of the law.
Shri. Anil Lad expanded on this, citing the example of coffee planters in his home state, who lived on the plantation, which more often than not are usually located several hours away from the nearest police post. He asked, if they were disarmed, how would these planters be able to protect themselves/ their families/ their property?
To this, Shri Manish Tiwary added, even if the police could get there within 15 minutes, that time was sufficient for criminals to cause serious harm/ death. Also, this all would presuppose that the victims were able to alert the police at all.
All present lamented the Government's move to limit All India Validity to just VIPs. They questioned whether a person's chances of being a victim of crime were limited to his/ her own state/ district? It was suggested by all that perhaps the time a person is most vulnerable is when he/ she is travelling cross-country by road/ rail.
The restrictions on ammunition quotas and the new requirement of accounting for every single round of ammunition as to when/ where/ for what purpose the license holder used it, also came up for discussion. It was everyone's consensus that this was simply impractical and would only lead to harassment of the license holder and widespread corruption.
After hearing everyone's views in detail, the Hon'able Prime Minister said that this matter had indeed come up for discussion before the cabinet. However, he admitted he had never owned a firearm himself and was unfamiliar with the issues involved, despite this he had put several questions to the Home Minister in this regard - to which he added that the Home Minister had put forward rather convincing arguments. He then went on to say, that the points & issues raised by the delegation were well thought out logical ones and he would definitely take the time to read the entire document, before forwarding with his notes to the Ministry. The Prime Minister then asked why we had not taken this up directly with the Home Minister, to which Shri. Digvijay Singh responded that we had indeed requested the Home Minister for an audience as well, but since the appointment with the Prime Minister came through first we were meeting with him.
Shri. Digvijay Singh and all MPs in the delegation then thanked the Prime Minister for taking out time to give them the opportunity to air their views on the new Arms Policy/ proposed amendments to the Arms Act/ Arms Rules.
Once the Prime Minister left, the delegation dispersed. Shri. Rahoul Rai and Shri. Anil Lad then met with some of the press present at the parliament and apprised them of what had taken place, who all were present etc.
Now he will be incensed and use all kind of stonewalling tactics, 
but we will prevail because of this;
