Ist Nagri Meet, New Delhi, Jan 17, 2010

[shahid]

DRAFTED BY ABHIJEET SINGH, he is the official communications co-ordinator for NAGRI

Please spread far & wide amongst those who are sensitive to our cause, including posting this information on respective forums.

NAGRI 1st meet

The first meeting of the National Association of Gun Rights India (NAGRI), took place on 17th January 2010 at the Habitat Centre, New Delhi. What follows is a brief summary of the meeting:

The weather gods don't heed the best laid plans, and come Sunday, Delhi saw some of the worst fog of the season. Traffic was backed up for hours and most morning trains & flights were cancelled/ delayed/ diverted. Despite this initial setback, the vast majority of our enthusiastic invitees braved the conditions and made it to the venue in time for the meet. In all 34 attendees, from more than 10 Indian States/ UTs, were present, the list (in alphabetical order):

Abhijeet Singh
Ajay Singha
Amit Kr Gupta
Anupam Kamal
Arti Singh Rao
Ashok Mittal
Barun Mitra
Biren Deep Sodhi
Col Rakesh Passi
DigVijay Singh
Gusti Noria
H S Bedi
J P Nautiyal
Jaspal Rana
Malvinder Singh Sodhi
Moraad A Khan
Naveen Jindal
Nishant Mangla
P Deepak
Rahoul Rai
Rajeev Singh
Rajpal S Kochhar
Reet Singh
Sanjay Mathur
Sanjay Saini
Shahid Ahmed
Shivashish Das
SS Sidhu
Sukhdeep P Singh
Sushil Lodhi
Vijay Soni
Vikram Bhatnagar
Vishavdev Singh Sidhu
Wg Cdr (Retd) Sarvagya Mathur

Since this was an all day conclave, besides a lunch break, there were several tea/ coffee breaks throughout the day. However for the sake of simplicity we'll divide the description into the 1st & 2nd halves of the day.

FIRST HALF
Once everyone had warmed up with piping hot tea/ coffee, the meet started out with informal discussions wherein various people voiced what they felt were immediate and long terms issues, what needed to be done to protect the interests of gun owners, etc.

The meeting was then called to order by Shri. Rajpal S Kochhar and he gave a brief presentation on the areas that need to be addressed immediately, systematically dividing each area of responsibility based on the kind of tasks to be executed & the skills that would be required. It was decided to set up volunteer committees for each one of these areas to get things moving at a fast pace. The committees formed were:

Legal & Legal Structure – Tasked with finalising the name of the organisation, putting in place the constitution, society registration etc.

Parliamentary & State Legislative Thrust – Tasked with sensitising and bringing on board MPs & MLAs, by explaining the issues to each, explaining our position, the government's position, the impact of policy changes etc. and then having them sign letters in our support, requesting them to raise starred/ unstarred questions in the house.

Dignitary Liaison – Tasked with sensitising and bringing on board public figures, retired senior Generals, IPS & other officers. Aimed towards having them publicly speak out in our favour.

Media Relations – Tasked with media management, both in terms of raising awareness & sensitising the media to our position as well as scrutinising all media reports related to areas affecting us and sending them our responses on an ongoing basis.

Internal communication – Tasked with Internal e-mail list, Website, Member Directory etc. to ease communications between the various members & committees.

Case – Tasked with building our case including preparing content for dissemination + research, this would include preparing ready-made counter arguments to dispel popular anti-gun myths, prepare a counter proposal to amend the Arms Act/ related policy in a more rational & pro-gun fashion.

Membership – Tasked with driving membership enrolment and making the organisation more representative of all demographic segments of gun owners (mass based). Also to take care of all other membership related issues.

Fund raising – Tasked with preparing short term & long term fund raising strategies


This was followed by a short talk by Abhijeet Singh, outlining the three main areas requiring legislative action.

Grant of License – towards making the process objective & fair completely free of fear or favour
Acquisition – towards repealing ammunition quotas and limits on the number of arms allowed to be owned by a private citizen.
Jurisdiction – towards simplifying jurisdiction issues and easing the grant of All India licenses

Next came the task of assigning volunteers to each committee, those present volunteered based on what areas they felt they could best contribute. It was decided that each team would work independently but in overall co-ordination of the other teams as this would allow for faster action/ reaction.

Committee Volunteers:

Legal & Legal Structure – Moraad A Khan, Sukhdeep, Abhijeet, P. Deepak, J.P. Nautiyal, Vikram Bhatnagar
Parliamentary & State Legislative Thrust – Gusti Noria, Jaspal Rana, Shahid Ahmed, Moraad A Khan
Dignitary Liaison – Wing Cmdr Mathur, Jaspal Rana, Moraad A Khan, Rahoul Rai
Media Relations – Sanjay Saini, Moraad A Khan, Arti Rao, Jaspal Rana
Internal communication – Abhijeet Singh and Team
Case – Abhijeet, P.Deepak
Membership – Anupam Kamal, Shivashish, Rajiv Sharma, Nishant Mangla
Fund raising – Rajpal Singh Kochhar, Shahid Ahmed, Sanjay Saini, Naveen Jindal, Amit Kr Gupta, Jaspal Rana

Shri. Jaspal Rana, someone who is well known not only to everyone in the shooting fraternity but also a sportsman with a huge fan following amongst the general public, stood up and volunteered to join more than one committee while also going so far as to promise to speak up on every public forum whenever requested to do so.

Shri. Moraad A Khan, renowned trap shooter who has represented India for many years, attended every single session and frequently contributed to the discussions taking place. He also volunteered for several committees, expressing his opinion that the time to do something positive was now or never.

Kr. Arti Rao, renowned skeet shooter who has represented India on several occasions, while promising her & her families whole hearted support, also undertook to bring more women shooters into the fold. She also happily volunteered to be a spokesperson for the organisation.

SECOND HALF
Shri. Rajpal S Kochhar, took the podium after lunch to appraise everyone of who all had volunteered for which committees. This was followed by further discussions on possible strategies.

Shri Digvijay Singh (senior Member of Parliament & President of NRAI) joined the meeting post-lunch and after being brought up to date on the discussions, spend some time expressing his views on how Parliamentarians should be approached and sensitised. He also promised the whole hearted support of NRAI towards making NAGRI and our collective cause a resounding success.

Shri Naveen Jindal (Member of Parliament), joined us during the post-lunch session. He expressed his whole hearted solidarity and promised to do everything in his power towards helping protect the basic right of every Indian citizen to own arms. While regaling everyone with some well chosen anecdotes, he brought to everyone's attention the sheer enjoyment that owning guns & shooting bring to all of us and also that while crimes are seldom committed using licensed arms, unfortunately arms licensees were being constantly harassed at every step. He promised the full support & help of his personal secretarial staff, as well as to help sensitise & bring on board as many fellow MPs as he could.

The body of members unilaterally lauded the efforts of Shri. Naveen Jindal towards the improvement of the lot of the shooting community (enthusiasts, athletes & license holders). By consensus Shri. Naveen Jindal was then elected as the president of the newly formed association and he accepted the responsibility with all humility, promising not to let down the aspirations of every Indian citizen. Once again, by consensus Shri. Digvijay Singh was elected as the Patron in Chief, and he too accepted, promising not only his support, but also that from every corner he could garner.

There were discussions on which best short term and long term strategies should be adopted. Shri Gusti Noria, Shri. Rahoul Rai, Shri. Vikram Bhatnagar, Shri. Sukhdeep P Singh, Shri. Shahid Ahmed, Shri. Vijay Soni, Shri. P. Deepak, Shri. Shivashish Das, Shri. Sanjay Saini, Shri. Anupam Kamal, Shri Barun Mitra, Shri JP Nautiyal, Shri. Ajay Singha, Col (retd) Passi and Shri. Sushil Lodhi were amongst the most vocal and active participants in these discussions and contributed hugely in arriving at the final outline that was decided to be put in action immediately.

Immediate course of action was decided as staying focussed on the current threat of the impending amendments to the Arms Act/ Rules, while long term attempts would be aimed at eventually having the laws & policy rationalised, with an eventual goal of having the right to keep & bear arms recognised as a fundamental right.

Action underway:
Team of individuals have already met up and got many MPs on board
Tabling of the amendment bill has been deferred for a few months due to the concerted efforts of many

Action to be undertaken:

Finalising name & constitution of organisation, so that membership can be opened to all ASAP

Ongoing media management & sensitisation of general public

Ongoing drive to bring on board more individuals

Increase number of signatories and gain approval of MP’s by meeting them in person and apprising them of the issue at hand and its associated legalities. Each one of should try and garner letters of support from as many MP's as we can, especially those who are part of either the Home Affairs Standing Committee or Consultative Committee

Drafting of the ‘Case’ against the amendment and drafting ‘Questions’ for parliament.

Draft letters to be sent across to all MP’s in co-ordination with Col. Passi (750)

Try to form a core support group of 200 MP’s

Identify luminaries and public figures who will act as patrons for the cause.

Form an internal group which is to meet up with: Hon'able Prime Minister / Hon'able Home Minister / Hon'able Speakers

A final summary was presented by Abhijeet Singh, after which the meeting was declared closed.

A very special thanks to Shri. Rajpal S Kochhar, without whose support we would not have come so far. The entire community of Indian gun owners, owes him a debt of gratitude for his initiative & drive in making this possible.

[R.S]

That is wonderful people from all across are stepping in... Shahid Bhai please do let our members know as to How being here on this FORUM we can start to contribute to this cause.
PLEASE do give this issue some serious thought,OLLY, SHUTZEN, Please provide inputs that we can ALL work on in our own respective regions and also collectively on TGG...

[m24]

The way it's going to work is we're going to have a National body and respective state bodies. Right now, the process has been initiated for making the Constitution, Rules and Regulations of the Society so that it can be registered and we can start the membership drive. Anybody and everybody who is with us can be made a member of this Society (details would be available after finalization of the Constitution). Also all those members who can garner support from MP's / MLA's of your region, I suggest, please get in touch with Shahid bhai, take the format from him, get it signed and send it to him ASAP. The short term objective of the society would be to garner legislative support as much as possible, make sure that the Draft amendment of Arms act gets either stalled or moved in our favour. The long term goals, objective would be released as and when they are made available. And everybody's support, Rhys, will be required. It took us 60 years to make this society. The opposition has a 60 year start and we have lot of catching up to do.

Regards

[Olly]

I surely will keep all members posted on the developments and as and when memberships will open. If anybody has a point of discussion, other than what has already been posted, please do not hesitate to post it here, so that it can be taken up.

With the kind of support and enthusiasm we have, I am sure our voice would be heard - far and wide !

[shahid]

All TGG members would of course willingly join in as members of NAGRI. It is for the common benefit and for protecting civil rights of all.

Those who can attend further meets. Meanwhile join NAGRI and let us know on which committee would you like to work.

Everyone will contribute to the membership enrolement drive in his area members could be licence holders or aspirants. Membership fee is RS 1 only.

We will send you the text, get your local MLA / MLC or MP to sign it.

With best regards

Shahid

[shutzen]

HI! As soon as the paperwork is in place the memberships will open and then all who are interested can join. What is most dissapointing is the apathy of the normal licence holder - he does not even want to do anything to protect his rights and rather wants to "mistakenly" assume that sports shooters are the most affected and they will protect their rights and indirectly his too. What he does not realise is that the sports shooters are safe from the current draft and its only the normal licence holder who is getting affected. However what is noteworthy is that most of the initiative being taken now is being done by the sports shooters on behalf of everyone. Well I hope in due course the normal licencees mobilise and join ranks to fight for their rights . A very special thanks goes out to Raja Kochhar for sponsoring the event and bearing all the expenses. We hope that with Naven Jindal as President of the body and with the sincere efforts of all of us we can at least hope to stall the current process.

[gungeek]

Congrats to Shri. Rajpal S Kochhar & his team for Creation of NAGRI. TGG will do what ever needed for NAGRI and we will spread this to every one we know. This is just a beginning and a lot needs to be done. I am anytime & anywhere available when ever needed for this great cause. A very special thanks to Shahid Bhai, Shutzen, Olly & M24 for contributing in creation of NAGRI.

[shafath]

My heartiest congrats to the moderators of GG for having iniatated NAGRI on a National level.We have to fight for our rights failingwhich gunlovers and Arms licence holders will be crushed and buldozed by the anti guns lobby.I hope all members take serious interest in this matter and all of us have to stand united in this hour of crisis. I am ready to join in and contribute in whatever manner our senior members so desire.
Regards
Shafath

[fazalahmed]

HI
my heartiest congratulation for making such a wonderful organistation.
fazal

[captrakshitsharma]

lets all join rather than talk... pls rope in as many member as u can... even non firearm holders ca be members.. helps represent our case and make it stronger