September 7,1998

Besieged by a spurt in crime in Lucknow, the police resort to training businessmen in the use of  firearms.

On August 13, a group of Lucknow's top traders and businessmen descended on the police lines, firearms in hand. Among them was Shyamil Vani Agarwal, the wife of a jeweller and resident of the city's posh Mahanagar locality. They weren't there to gherao the police, much less to shoot them. In fact, every morning at 8, Shyamil joins 36 others at the police lines and for the next four hours the group is given intensive training in the use of firearms.

This is perhaps the first time in the country that the police, besieged by a spurt in incidents of kidnapping, extortion and looting at gunpoint, is imparting training in firearms to citizens. In the past six months alone, more than 40 traders in Lucknow have been targeted by extortionists. Four of them have been killed, over half a dozen injured, five kidnapped and 13 others looted at gunpoint. In most cases, the terror-stricken businessmen preferred to pay up rather than report the matter to the police. With most extortion rackets run by powerful and politically connected mafia dons, this was, perhaps, the police's way of telling the local traders that like charity, their security too should begin at home. As a result, the city's businessmen have turned truly innovative. In the Mohan market in the Aminabad area of Lucknow, 34 shopkeepers have linked their establishments with an alarm system. "Even if one of us is targeted by extortionists and kidnappers, the alarm goes off in all the shops. This will help in jointly confronting the culprits," says Anil Bajaj, president of the Yuva Vyapar Mandal.

The trading community has been living in constant fear of extortionists. "There have been several cases of demands being made over the telephone," says Banwari Lal Kanchal, president of the Lucknow Vyapar Mandal and a BJP MLC. He said that a number of traders told him that out of sheer fright, they handed over the money to mafia dons, who had made threats over the phone. In one case, a feared don made an extortion call from the jail where he was lodged. His henchmen promptly turned up to collect the money. "The incidents of looting and extortion in the city have outnumbered those in crime-prone areas like Ghaziabad, Meerut and Dehradun," says Kanchal. "A fear psychosis is gripping the city traders, especially in posh markets. It is evident in the way big businessmen nowadays keep a low profile," says Chand Prakash, owner of a book store at the Hazratganj market in Lucknow. Naveen Tewari, who runs a furniture store, says the day is not far when the worsening law and order situation would trigger a traders' exodus to safer cities.

A helpless district administration -- facing the wrath of the businessmen on the one hand and mounting pressure from Chief Minister Kalyan Singh who wants them to be accountable on the other -- has resorted to arming the traders. As a first step, the state government decided to be more liberal in issuing arms licences to traders. A total of 27,183 licences have already been issued in Lucknow and some 18,000 applications are pending with the district administration. The decision to impart firearms training was taken subsequently. District Magistrate Sadakant conducted the first ever camp to train traders to handle their weapons and retaliate in combat situations in the city from July 25 to 28. On the first day, 36 businessmen and two housewives laid hands on guns, perhaps for the first time, and actually learned how to fire them. The programme is to continue in the coming months.

The two moves have evoked a mixed response in the city. While some have questioned the decision, businessmen and the police have welcomed it as a way of reassuring the trading community. Says S.K. Mishra, head of the state chapter of the Confederation of Indian Industry: "We welcome the firearms training programme. What is the use of a weapon unless one knows how to fire it?" Naresh Dayal, principal secretary, home, too justifies the administration's decision to hold training camps. "At least, it will develop a sense of confidence among the business community to defend themselves."

Sociologists, however, beg to differ. They feel the move would further promote a gun culture in a city that has become a haven for underworld dons. Major mafia gangs of eastern Uttar Pradesh have, in recent times, shifted base to Lucknow as most civil and railway contracts are awarded there and also because it's easier to get political shelter in the state capital. In fact, this shift in mafia operations is the main reason behind the spurt in crime in the city. "This can be corroborated from the fact that no major shoot-out has taken place in the eastern region, while six sensational incidents of murder, looting and kidnapping have kept the city police force on its toes," says a senior police officer.

However, a liberal policy on arms licences and the training could make matters worse. As R.S.P. Tiwari, a psychiatrist at King George Medical College, Lucknow, says, "With the training, these people will become comfortable in handling firearms, making the use of guns more frequent." Ashutosh Mishra, a social scientist with Lucknow University, feels protection and security should remain in the hands of law-enforcement agencies. "Otherwise it will create a different kind of fear in the public." Recalling the gunning down of a lecturer of the city's La Martiniere College by a student last year, Mishra says free use of guns could lead to anarchy.

There are reasons enough for his anxiety. "While there are over 27,000 licensed arms in the city, an equal number of illegal weapons are in the hands of underworld dons," says a senior official of the state Home Department. Most of these illegal weapons are sophisticated firearms and even some policemen believe that the administration's solution to the problem of rising crime is a little desperate. "It's bizarre to expect a trader who has never handled a firearm to use it to combat dons armed with highly sophisticated guns," says an officer. The administration's response to that may well be: desperate situations call for desperate remedies.

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