Re-visiting Kiran Bedi

Kiran Bedi does not have many friends in the police leadership. This was most apparent after my last article on her selection as the BJP’s ​chief minister candidate for Delhi was published. One retired officer who I hold in the greatest regard called me up to ask why I had certified her integrity. He pointed out that integrity covers not only money dealings but also intellectual integrity, which he felt Kiran sadly lacked! Many other IPS officers of yesteryears brought to my notice instances where Kiran Bedi had acted in a manner contrary to good conscience and decorum. A former Director of Intelligence Bureau wrote to say that he and the then Union Home Secretary Madhav Godbole had extricated her from a very tight corner. She had bent the rules to ensure a seat for her daughter in a New Delhi medical college meant for Mizo tribals and had abandoned her post in Mizoram to escape the wrath of Mizo citizens who had come out on the streets in large numbers to protest. I ascribed this unethical conduct to the fact that she was a mother and mothers often do not consider such ethical issues when it comes to their children’s welfare. To this, some others retorted that the daughter was not really interested in studying medicine, that she gave up midway and proceeded to the US to pursue a course in journalism instead, thus depriving a Mizo tribal of a seat in a medical college. Another individual, not a police officer, but a former MD of an Oil Company, wrote to say that the myth around Bedi impounding Indira Gandhi’s car for wrong parking was not based on reality because Indira Gandhi was abroad at that time and a rogue driver of one of the many official cars in her fleet went out for shopping and parked the car wrongly before entering a shop. The driver was issued a challan by a Police Inspector or someone even more junior under Bedi’s watch and she was very happy to take the credit and give the public the impression that it was she who had no fear of the highest in the land. But the highest in the land actually knew nothing about this! Even if Indira Gandhi would have come to know, she would not have bothered about a non-issue. Myths do arise around action-oriented officers and very often such officers are quite content to bask in the aura that is created. As Commissioner of Police, Mumbai, a few such funny stories were centered around me and though I denied them promptly, I cannot say that I was not secretly pleased! After all, humans like to be praised.  Of one thing I am convinced. Kiran is not a believer in participative management as advocated by management gurus, and even by Obama who said during his 'Mann Ki Baat' address on Radio: “In this day and age leaders cannot govern by top-down strategies but must reach out in an empowering inclusive way.” Can Kiran Bedi follow this dictum?  Will she be a good chief minister or a successful one? That is a difficult question to answer as only time will tell. The BJP did not see any alternative to overcome the charisma of Arvind Kejriwal, a former collaborator of Kiran Bedi in the anti-corruption crusade of Anna Hazare. She has shown some rather individualistic traits right through her service career and if these are not checked, she may not get the support of her new found colleagues in the BJP. She could not make too many friends in the Indian Police Service and will encounter even rougher sailing in a political party. On the other hand, she has some qualities required of politicians, like changing colours when necessary! As for me, I will be very proud if Kiran Bedi becomes Chief Minister. This feeling of pride has nothing to do with her abilities or her capabilities to be a political leader. It is more to do with the narrow parochial pride of having an IPS officer as a Chief Minister. It has not happened before. A former police constable became the chief minister of Rajasthan. He went on to become the Vice President of India. A police Sub Inspector became the chief minister of Maharashtra and later the Union Home Minister. IPS officers have become Governors, Ambassadors, Ministers in the Union and State Governments and two even became National Security Advisors, sitting at the high table with the Prime Minister at international meetings. But none have become chief minister of a state and it is this narrow compulsion of pride that makes me root for Kiran Bedi over Arvind Kejriwal.