Dr Kiran Bedi is an accomplished woman, one I respect and admire. A few years ago, I was a media representative at the National Police Academy in Hyderabad and Dr Bedi and I along with other senior police officers were attending a meeting of the NPA. By 6 pm, most of the menfolk were getting restless: the sun was setting and the throat was parched. But Dr Bedi — the only woman in the room — determinedly made a stellar presentation on the citizen police equation. The rest of us had lost interest, but Dr Bedi was pushing ahead with her speech.
That is how I have always known Kiran Bedi: tough, energetic, focused. Yes, I have heard the criticisms too: she is not a team player, she revels in publicity, is crazily ambitious. The last is a strange criticism: almost as if a male police officer wishes to be police commissioner, then it’s routine, but if a woman steps in, then she is seen to be ultra-aggressive. It’s almost as if Dr Bedi has had to carry the cross of being India’s first woman police officer: she seems to intimidate her peers who would maybe still prefer a woman’s role to be in the kitchen.
And yet, for all her admirable qualities, you ask yourself: has Dr Bedi made the right move by joining politics? Has she jumped into the fray only because she senses opportunity, or is she truly convinced that the BJP is the future? Will she survive the intensely patriarchal political set up, or is she simply being used by a party in desperate search for a credible local leadership in Delhi? My sense is that in the last few years, Dr Bedi has been a nomad in search of a cause that will give her a new identity. For a while, she saw in Anna Hazare a messiah-like figure during the Lokpal movement; now she seems to have become a fan-girl of Narendra Modi. Arvind Kejriwal, I believe, always wanted to be a neta: the activism was only one step to a political life. Dr Bedi, on the other hand, was probably more suited to being a hands on, problem solving officer: be it prison reform or womens’ security, she has brought a refreshing can-do spirit to her work. Her ideological stances though have often been less consistent beyond voicing a predictable commitment to the mantra of ‘good governance’
Is she then a potential chief minister who will channelise her boundless energy into an agenda for making Delhi into a world class city? I hope so, but am not so sure. A politician’s life is not a television studio, or even a police station. It requires a skill set that goes beyond just being seen as a charismatic figure. Don’t forget, it was the same Dr Bedi who had mimicked netas during the Anna agitation and then raised the slogan: ‘sab neta chor hai’. If Kejriwal revelled in dharna politics, Dr Bedi has also often chosen confrontation to conciliation. As a policewoman, she could wield the danda; as a politician, she will have to change her working style. I do hope she succeeds.
Post-script: This election of Delhi only confirms that even if the 2011 Anna agitation didn’t yield a strong anti-corruption Lokpal, it sure has provided a political career path to many. It’s only the face of the agitation who has stayed put in his village in Ralegan Siddhi. The rest have moved on, seeking opportunity in the very political class they claimed to once despise.
