Gunning for law and order
Speaking generally
By Chanchal Sarkar

THE world over we create a screaming fuss about America’s gun laws. Rightly, too, because if anyone can walk into a gun shop and buy a lethal weapon (very few are exempt) then the danger to everyone’s life is immense. The tragic school shootings have shown this. But what about us? Not just someone pulling a gun and shooting a Jessica Lal but much, much more.

B. Sivaramayya was a Professor of Law at Delhi University. A teacher and person universally respected, he had built a house in the suburb called Vaishali where he lived with his wife after retirement. Sivaramayya did a lot of semi-voluntary work for the National Council for Women, the Centre for Women’s Development Studies, and other socially active organisations. His writing and editing were greatly appreciated.

A few days ago Sivaramayya stepped out of his home in broad daylight to go to his bank which was very near. Some building work was going on at his house and the workmen had to be paid some Rs 30,000.

Sivaramayya withdrew the money and was walking back home, in broad daylight, as I said, but with not many people about. Suddenly he was set upon by two men on a scooter who beat him up, snatched the money and sped away in their scooter. I said "beat him up", which is a thoroughly weak description. Sivaramayya somehow pulled himself up and staggered to his home. When he entered his wife did not recognise him, so covered was he with blood, until he told her who he was. With the help of friends he was taken to a hospital where they said that his head wound was very, very deep. Soon Sivaramayya slipped into a coma and in two days he was gone, to the distress of his family and many friends.

My question is that if we condemn the Americans for their senseless gun-killings, with readily bought guns, for their having the largest number of prisoners in the world, for being a country where even children carry guns into school and parents teach them to shoot in ranges, then what about us?

I, too, have to walk to my bank and back from time to time and to draw not insignificant sums of money. I, too, have to walk near our home at night where the lights are dim (and sometimes non-functioning) and there is hardly anyone about in our quiet neighborhood. If I am set upon as Sivaramayya was what do I do?

If I shouted probably none would respond and, in any case, the assailants would zoom away. So should gun-carrying be made easier in India? If not automatic pistols and suchlike, should small revolvers be allowed without the enormous fuss that is made now-a-days?

The reality is that gun-running and gun-smuggling are now as easy as pie but the ones who acquire such guns are the last people who should have them. If people of substance and stature were allowed guns then probably Sivaramayya would not have died. Needless to say the Police will make no headway over the cruel death of a good man. Maybe they even knew of the attack and claimed a cut from the loot. Anyway West Bengal’s Police Commission has just said that the State’s Police Service is a whisker away from total breakdown. Delhi can’t be any better.