Trigger warning

Lethal weapons in Durga Prasai’s possession should make the state rethink its firearms licensing policy.

Seventeen years ago, Lokendra Bista, then a novice lawmaker of the then CPN-Maoist, shocked the nation when he said in Parliament: “I am still carrying my pistol with the permission of the United Nations.” Some days earlier, security personnel at the Singha Durbar main gate had confiscated pistols from personal guards of Bista and of another Maoist lawmaker and party chief whip Dev Gurung. On the party’s behalf, Gurung had then apologised in Parliament for Bista’s incendiary speech. This episode raised considerable concern, with the people asking if the Maoists had clung to their insurgent selves even when they had been ushered to national politics with a position almost equal to that of the then second-largest party in Parliament. The then Home Minister Krishna Sitaula had downplayed the incident, remarking that Bista’s claim “must not be true”. Perhaps Sitaula wanted to give the erstwhile gun-toting guerillas some time to adjust to mainstream politics.