Delhi polls: What about Kiran
Bedi's past as a bhagora?
Kiran Bedi’s past is
so full of many U-turns, controversies, spats with seniors, courts, lawyers and
outbursts against Narendra Modi that an entire
issue of Charlie Hebdo could be dedicated to satirizing her career.
Her opinion on Modi, before she inexplicably (or was it part of
a political strategy?) changed her mind is well known, courtesy her tweets.
Till a few months before Modi became the PM -- a fact that must have inspired
Bedi to rearrange her thoughts and realign her political philosophy -- she was
continuously attacking him for the Gujarat riots.
In March, Bedi tweeted: "One day NaMo will need to respond
with clarity about riots massacre. Despite Courts clearing him so far."
And in April 2012, she has argued that Modi may have passed the
SIT exam but was yet to clear the test of ‘prevailing perception of serious
incidents’ under his watch.
PTI image
But, hey, now that the BJP desperately needs somebody to take on Arvind Kejriwal, all such past sins are forgiven.
The public spotlight that comes with an election may be less
merciful. Now that she has taken the plunge into politics, Bedi will have to
undergo a serious scrutiny of her career, persona and politics. There may not
be Charlie Hebdo cartoons, but there will be uncomfortable questions.
Why was Bedi, for instance, bypassed for the post of Delhi’s
police commissioner? And why was she not found suitable for a filed posting
after being reprimanded by an enquiry committee for ordering a lathi charge on
lawyers?
In July 2007, Bedi proceeded on a three-month ‘protest leave’
when she was overlooked for the Delhi commissioner’s
post. Bedi claimed she was a victim of gender
bias, and declared that she was weighing all ‘options including legal’. She
instead suddenly changed her mind, cancelled her leave, resumed office and
finally applied for voluntary retirement. The government accepted her
application and relieved her immediately.
At the time, many critics challenged her claim that her ‘merit
has been compromised’ and she has an ‘outstanding record.’
“To begin with, you've received neither the Indian Police Medal
for Meritorious Service nor the President's Police Medal for Distinguished
Service. Given that these are routinely awarded after completing a certain
number of years of service, isn't your not getting them proof that your record
is neither meritorious nor distinguished?
Secondly, is it true that on 4 separate occasions you failed to
complete your tenure and at least twice left your post without permission which
is tantamount to desertion of duty? (She didn't complete her tenure as
Superintendent of Police in Goa, DIG (Range) in Mizoram, Inspector General (Prisons) Tihar Jail and Inspector General of Police in Chandigarh. The posts
that she left without permission were Goa, in 1983, and Mizoram, in 1992.
Speaking to the Sunday Observer on the 27th September, 1992, she said of
Mizoram: "I left without asking". Her letter of 25th January, 1984 to
the Inspector General of Police in Goa, Mr Rajendra Mohan, establishes that she
left on leave that had not been sanctioned.)
In 1990, Bedi was indicted by an enquiry committee headed by
Justice DP Wadhwa for gross irregularities in dealing with a strike by Tis
Hazari lawyers in Delhi. In a damning indictment of her role, the committee
said the lathi-charge on agitating lawyers ordered by Kiran Bedi, the then
deputy commissioner of police (north), a week after the incident was "indiscriminate
and unjustified".
Worse, it
declared that Bedi had connived with a municipal
councilor in organising and transporting a mob to Tiz Hazari who then assaulted
the lawyers. Bedi maintained that she was discriminated against during the
enquiry. But it was accepted by the home ministry and tabled in the Parliament
with an assurance to lawyers that Bedi will never be posted in Delhi in any
important position.
Bedi was later sent to Mizoram where her actions stirred up
another controversy. People of the state poured into the streets when it was
revealed that Bedi had secured her daughter’s admission to an MBBS course in
Delhi’s Lady Hardinge College under the Mizoram quota.
Bedi argued that she was within her rights to avail the quota
since she was at that time posted in Mizoram. But protesters claimed the
purpose of the reservation was to ensure local students get its benefit and
Bedi had taken advantage of a loophole in the law. When Mizoram became too
hot to handle, Bedi once again left. Incidentally, her daughter also dropped
out of the course later.
Incomplete tenures, unauthorised leaves and lots of flip-flops.
And let’s not forget the words Thapar used to describe her actions while in the
police of force: “desertion of duty”.
The Delhi election is now a battle of the bhagoras.
Voters will have to decide whose dereliction of duty matter more: Arivnd
Kejriwal’s 49-day tenure or Kiran Bedi’s many hasty exits.
