New Delhi: Under the new Social Democratic Party government led by Olaf Scholz, Germany has lifted restrictions on the sale of small arms, thereby allowing the Indian military and its state police forces to buy them off the shelf.

Earlier this month, the German government green-lit a request by the National Security Guard (NSG) to buy spare parts and accessories for its MP5 submachine guns that were procured earlier, sources in the know said.

This, they added, was a turnaround because the German government had strict regulations in place regarding the sale of small arms to non-NATO countries.

It is also learnt that the NSG did procure several MP5s since the restrictions came in 2008, but state police forces were not able to purchase them.

This is because the earlier Christian Democratic Union German government, headed by former chancellor Angela Merkel from 2005 to 2021, had prevented the sale of small arms to police forces operating in states which they perceived had a “bad human rights record”.

Therefore, police forces fighting armed militancy, insurgency or left-wing extremism in regions such as Jammu and Kashmir, the Northeast, Andhra Pradesh and others could not procure the guns.

German firm Heckler & Koch, whose MP5 submachine guns are used by the NSG and Indian Navy Commandos MARCOS, had steered clear of the large Indian market because the German government feared the rifles supplied to the Indian Army or central armed police forces would be used in Kashmir, sources said.

Asked about this, a diplomatic source said, “It was not completely about Kashmir or human rights issues. The previous government had put restrictions on the sale of small arms to non-NATO countries.”

The source added, “But now India has got an exemption. On 1 April, Heckler & Koch got permission to sell to India. This shows the strategic value Germany puts to its relations with India.”

It was explained that Germany had made its export licensing rules softer and easier. A second source said that on certain items, the German company involved can first export them and then seek a licence from its government. “In the last month and a half, several Indian requests have been sanctioned,” the source said.

The source added 95 percent requests earlier were cleared but took time, prompting Germany to make the process easier. India’s small arms requests were among the 5 percent that were rejected by Germany.

In 2011, Narendra Modi as then chief minister of Gujarat raised the issue of Germany’s boycott and that of another European country. He was unhappy with a then home ministry circular advising certain states, including Gujarat which wanted the MP5s, to import weapons from the US, Italy or Russia.

There was a frenzy among police forces to procure the MP5s since the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks since both the NSG and MARCOS had used them during the three-day carnage.

(With Agency Inputs)