In Gwalior, You Can Get a Gun License by Donating a Few Blankets to Cows

If you thought the unmitigated appreciation for cows that seems to course through the veins of many Indian ministers couldn’t get any more ridiculous, it just did. Anurag Chaudhary, the district collector of Gwalior, a city in Madhya Pradesh that is infamous for having a history of dacoits and bandits, has now announced that anyone who wants to get a gun license must donate at least ten blankets to cows in any of the state-provided shelters.

After it was brought to Chaudhary’s notice that six cows had died due to the “excessive cold” when he attended a meeting of cow vigilantes (gaurakshaks) on Saturday, December 14, he came to the conclusion that the best way to protect the animal considered sacred in Hinduism is to make compassion mandatory. So, he decided that anyone who wants to own a firearm must first show that they care. About cows at least.

This is the same guy who earlier had said that those wanting to obtain a gun license must plant a tree, take a selfie with the sapling and care for it for a month. “People in Gwalior have a craze for arms,” he told Hindustan Times. “They need it for self-defence also. Hence, once they donate blankets to get preference in getting arms licenses we will have more blankets for cows in the shelters. Earlier, our decision to ask such applicants to plant saplings yielded good results and as many as 17,000 saplings were planted for arms license seekers.”

In the Gwalior-Chambal area, keeping a gun is a way to flex one's power and respect in society. So, this collector is making the most of it by using gun licenses as pawns to further the causes he cares about.

However, the electricity department in neighbouring Morena has asked for guns not to be given to those who default on their electricity bill as they often threaten power officials and continue to not pay them. So while it’s nice that the collector’s new rule will give us more trees and keep the cows warm, it would be nicer if they considered humans needs too.

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