District authority of Imphal in view of the upcoming Lok Sabha election has issued notification that licensed arms and ammunitions must be deposited to the police stations concerned. Such notifications are served specifically before the elections. The notification, if any, is more of an administrative obligation printed out on papers. Does it raise our hope high beyond the horizon of violence that has become a part of our everyday landscape? For that matter, there are plenty of arms and ammunitions in Manipur. The largest deposits of it are with the army and the para military that are here to fight insurgency, and to defend the country – in a patriotic fervor. Next remain the state police, a quintessential part of the state apparatus without which the operative system of a state is simply unthinkable. Insurgent groups operating in the state would be the third element. After all, their movement is an armed movement purportedly fighting for a cause. They are therefore declared as outlaws by the state for possessing arms and for waging war against the state. However there is one fuzzy area as far as arms in particular are concern. This would be the license given to the civilian population to own arms. The law of the land allows civilian to own arms if there is an impending threat perception to the life and property of an individual. One has to fulfill certain procedural requirements while getting licensed arms. The state home department is entrusted with this job. We presumed there has been an unrestrained rise in the number of licensed gun holders largely in the Imphal area. Visibility of Imphal’s dark belly gets clearer during the night hours. There are numbers of illegal liquor vendors doing brisk business during the night time in a dry state like Manipur. They operate with ‘protection money’ for protecting them mostly paid to the men in uniforms. Drunken brawls take place regularly in these vendors. And this is where proud possession of arm comes into display. The pan shops that remained opened late night are also a battle ground for showing off. Although there has been no report of any serious crime from this places. Yet there are obvious fears of gun related crimes looming large in this dark belly. Legislators, actors, contractors, businessmen, Government employees in high position, almost everybody seem to possess a licensed gun in the town. A debauched pleasure is being drawn by brandishing firearm at the drop of a hat. It is worth recalling the Freudian id of pleasure. According to him id is the dark, inaccessible part of our personality, a chaos, a cauldron full of seething excitations. It is filled with energy reaching it from the instincts, but it has no organization, produces no collective will, but only a striving to bring about the satisfaction of the instinctual needs subject to the observance of the pleasure principle. The practical use of legal firearms for self-defense is also an insult to the State – a manifestation that benevolent government cannot adequately protect its citizens. Are the licensing authorities of the state guided by Freudian id as well? It is time for the department concerned for a proper regulation. If not, a driving license and a gun license might not have any dissimilarity in the days to come.
Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/03/licensing-freudian-id/