Catching Veerappan, who amuses himself upsetting the government cart, is like trying to cage a titan. The State is in no position to meet his conditions for surrender. But his willingness to give up an outlaw's life has raised questions about precedents and antecedents. Can the government provide amnesty to a criminal who admits to having killed five score and nineteen people? How can such a person escape the law for such a long time? What gives rise to people like him who openly flout the law? Is it the result of a policy which increasingly alienates people from what should be theirs and encourages them to support outlaws? Is something rotten in the State machinery? Rajat Banerji finds that politicians today do notunderstand the issues. Or are they playing games in the interest of outlaws?