Arms And The Men

It could well be a pot boiler from Bollywood. An ex-serviceman comes back home, sees the lawlessness around him and picks up arms. Something like that happened to Badri Narayan Pandey, who in 1990 set up the Gram Raksha Dal Shahidi Jatha. Since then it has acquired members in nearly 300 villages. Its members wear green shirts, carry a torch and a gun. To date, the 400-strong self-defence army has to its credit several ‘hits’. Carrying licensed arms is not a problem in West Champaran and the district administration actually encourages it. "Kheti aur beti ki raksha"(protection of the land and daughters) is the group’s motto, Pandey points out. And while they have helped in rehabilitating some bandits as well, they believe in being the aggressor. Pandey says that he wants to extend their influence in other villages.

Well-to-do citizens are by and large armed. Says a village pramukh, Shambhu Tiwari, from Bettiah: "Offence is the best form of defence." He has never been attacked and has organised his own small group.

The district magistrate says they encourage citizens to take up arms. "There are close to 9,000 licensed arms in the district," he says. What he leaves unsaid is that there could be five times the number if illegal arms are taken into consideration.