In January this year a bench of the Hon’able Supreme Court of India passed a landmark judgement upholding every Indian citizen’s right of self defence. Ironically, during the same time period, our own government was feverishly working behind the scenes to limit the practical availability of this right to the rich & powerful elite of the country.
Right of self-defence is the justified use of force to protect oneself and one’s property from criminal attack. It also extends to the use of force to protect one’s fellow citizens from such an attack. Besides finding a place in our criminal & case law, it also flows from our constitutional right to life & liberty, as per Article 21 of the Indian constitution. This natural right to self-defence is not a new concept, it has been recognised wherever civilisation has existed – across all cultures and right through the ages. However, this in no way negates the states responsibility to strive to protect every citizens person, property and liberties, on the contrary this is one of the many rights of every citizen that the state is tasked with protecting.
One of the fundamental reason why we humans choose to live in a State is for protection of our rights, firstly to our right to live and then our property & other liberties. But, are we actually protected and do we feel protected? If one is to look at crime statistics from 1953-2007, a very frightening picture emerges – Murders are up 229.7%, Rapes are up by 733.8%, Kidnapping & Abduction are up 423.9%, etc. Some assume that most violent crimes take place only in rural areas, but that is not correct. Almost all the 35 major cities in India have higher crime rates than the state they are part of, with Delhi also being the rape capital of the country.
No disrespect to our men & women in khaki, but the fact is that India has one of the lowest police to population ratios in the world. On top of that lack of basic manpower, if we consider issues like the lack of proper training, equipment, resources, corruption, excessive interference by politicians, bureaucratic hindrances etc., the standards of service drastically change for the worse. Even in countries with better funded and more efficient police forces, the police is almost never at hand to prevent a violent crime while it is being committed. The fact is, no police force can be everywhere all at once, and even if alerted in time, by the time they reach, it is usually too late! The police investigates crimes after they are committed and based on how efficient they are, they can merely act as a deterrent to crime not as our personal bodyguards.
When a crime is being committed the first persons on the scene are the potential victims themselves. This is essentially why the right of self-defence is so important, as it allows law abiding citizens the legal use of force to protect themselves.
Firearms & the right of self-defence
Most violent crimes are about the equation of power in a situation. It does not take a criminologist or a professor of psychology to understand this. Almost always, violent crimes take place because the perpetrators think that there is no threat of retaliation and they can get away safely after committing the crime. They think they have an advantage over their potential victims in terms of strength, numbers, age, or sex etc., especially due to their victims’ seeming weakness and lack of willingness to strike back. There is a cost-benefit ratio analysis behind almost all crimes. When there is determined and effective resistance even the most determined of criminals want to, ultimately, make a safe getaway, living for another day to perpetrate another crime.
Faced with a determined criminal attack by a stronger adversary, how can citizens effectively defend themselves? By far the most effective tool for defending oneself against such random acts of violence, is a firearm. It immediately negates the attackers numerical/ physical superiority and the basic use of firearms can be learnt with just a few days of proper instruction. Think of it like you would insurance, you hope you never have to use it, but when the time comes you are glad you had the foresight to be prepared. Without such tools, the right of self-defence can never be an effective reality for ordinary citizens.
This fact was not lost on our freedom fighters & founding fathers, in fact throughout the freedom struggle demands were made for the right to keep & bear arms for all Indian citizens. Even the great Mahatma Gandhi spoke out against the British policy of denying Indians the right to own firearms. Post Independence, this was accorded as a Legal Right to all citizens, through the Arms Act of 1959.
However, starting in the early 1980’s, through multiple amendments and changes in rules, this right has been watered down to such an extent, that unless a law abiding citizen is able to use political clout or money power, his chances of being issued an Arms License are next to zero. Even if a citizen is lucky enough to be issued an Arms License, the government policy of restricting domestic manufacture and complete ban on imports has led to a situation where ordinary self-defence type guns which are sold internationally for between 5,000-10,000/- are being legally retailed in India for between 80,000-10 lacs & above! This has been ostensibly done in the name of keeping guns out of the hands of criminals.
What they omit to mention is, that to acquire firearms, criminals do not first apply for Arms Licenses – they simply buy them off the black market, without any paperwork and at a fraction of the price of legal firearms! The most popular with criminals is perhaps the “katta”, available for as little as ` 500/-, cheap to buy and completely untraceable! This is validated by the statistics for violent crime, where legal firearms are found to be used in a minuscule number of cases.
Why then these restrictions on ordinary law abiding citizens, when criminals & terrorists face no such encumbrances? The answer is as simple as it is shocking – to deflect attention from the real issue of the government not being able to rein in violent crime & terror.
AN ILLEGAL ORDER
What is even more shocking is how the government is now moving to make the law even more elitist than it already is. Based on information obtained through an RTI application, we have been made aware of the fact that on 31st March this year the Ministry of Home Affairs issued an directive to all State/ UT Home Departments, ordering them to begin implementation of the new Arms Policy for Individuals. In total subversion of the parliamentary process this was done without first moving any amendment bill in parliament, in effect changing the law illegally through an executive order! It is only now, a full four months after the order was passed, that the Ministry is seeking to have amendments passed in parliament that will legalise this patently illegal order of the Ministry.
Amongst other aspects, this new policy makes it mandatory for any arms applicant to first prove “verifiable” threat to their life before a license will be issued – ensuring that only those in the VIPs/ VVIPs category will ever be issued licenses. Furthermore, from now on, All India valid licenses will only be issued to a select class of VIPs/ VVIPs, in effect creating a class system within the law and telling ordinary law abiding citizens that their need for protection is limited to the borders of their home state/ district. There are also several other points within the new policy which will do nothing but lead to increased harassment of citizens and more corruption.
The fact that these laws & policies leave citizens ever more vulnerable to attack, seems to be of little import to our policy makers.
Why should I be concerned?
If you think that all of these numbers & statistics do not have any bearing upon your life, please consider these scenarios: You are a call centre employee returning home in the middle of the night and are attacked by muggers, or you are a retired pensioner and armed dacoits break into your house. Perhaps, you are a housewife, alone with young children, and accosted by opportunistic malefactors, or you are, a businessman and a gang of robbers wants to rid you off your life long savings. You could be a parent of a darling child, whom someone wanted to kidnap right in front of your eyes for ransom, or you are a young girl in danger of a violent rape. The list of violent dangers that befall many across India is endless, and the chances of protection if such crimes are attempted against you are very limited.
In stead of changing the law to make the process of obtaining an Arms License (and thus the means to effective self-defence) transparent, objective & free of fear or favour, our government is taking the opposite path – by limiting the availability of the tools for effective self-defence to an elite segment of society, while leaving the vast majority of citizens defenceless and at the mercy of all manner of criminals.
One can only speculate as to how things may have turned out on 26/11 in Mumbai, had only 20% of the victims been armed and able to protect themselves.