Another first for Kiran Bedi, but can she deliver for BJP?
This is the first time the 34-year-old BJP has made an outsider its chief ministerial candidate
There have been many first-time moments in the life of Kiran Bedi, the former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer who became a social worker after leaving the force, before emerging as an anti-corruption crusader. Bedi is now leading the assembly election campaign for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as its chief ministerial candidate for Delhi.
This is the first time the 34-year-old BJP has made an outsider its chief ministerial candidate. Although the BJP had been trying to induct Bedi for a long time, the move finally materialized just weeks before the 7 February Delhi election.
Bedi was born in Amritsar on 9 June 1949. Her grandfather had resisted her parents’ decision to send their four daughters to school, but Bedi’s parents made sure that their daughters were not only educated but also excelled in academics.
Bedi studied at Sacred Heart Convent School in Amritsar and graduated in English (Honours) from Government College for Women in the same city. She moved to Chandigarh in 1968 for her Masters in Political Science at Punjab University. Bedi then received a Bachelor of Law (LLB) degree from Delhi University in 1988 before earning a PhD on drug abuse and domestic violence from the department of social sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, five years later.
Bedi joined the IPS in 1972. After completing her training at the National Police Academy at Mount Abu, Rajasthan, she was posted as a sub-divisional police officer at the Chanakyapuri Police Station in New Delhi, becoming the first woman in uniform to lead the all-male contingent of the Delhi Police at the Republic Day Parade in 1975.
Bedi enjoyed the status of a celebrity cop as the first woman to join the IPS, and was given charge of handling traffic in Delhi. She was nicknamed Crane Bedi because she used a large number of cranes to remove wrongly parked vehicles. In 1982, a sub-inspector in her department booked a wrongly parked car belonging to then prime minister Indira Gandhi, who was abroad with her family. The top cop was also instrumental in organizing the traffic planning of the ninth Asian Games in Delhi in 1982.
During her tenure as the inspector general of prisons, Bedi converted the high-security Tihar jail in Delhi into a reform home for prisoners by introducing meditation, higher education facilities and vocational training. She was awarded the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service in 1994 for her efforts in prison governance. Indira Gandhi National Open University and National Open School set up their centres inside the prison during her tenure.
Bedi quit the police in 2007 after being overlooked for the post of Delhi police commissioner. “When I was not appointed the Delhi Police commissioner and a junior was promoted, I decided to leave police service and focus my effort in the field of academic and social work. I felt I would contribute more in those fields," Bedi said while joining the BJP recently.
After leaving the force, Bedi anchored a television show called Aap Ki Kacheri (Your Court) and later joined the India Against Corruption movement launched by social activist Anna Hazare to demand an Indian anti-corruption ombudsman Lokpal. She is also a social worker and heads two organizations, the Navjyoti India Foundation, which works with marginalized sections of society, and India Vision Foundation, which focuses on the education and skills training of prisoners’ children.
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