Kiran Bedi

Kiran Bedi (born 9 June 1949) is an Indian social activist, former-tennis player who became the first woman in India to join the officer ranks of the Indian Police Service (IPS) in 1972 and was the 24th Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry from 28 May 2016 to 16 February 2021. She remained in service for 35 years before taking voluntary retirement in 2007 as Director General, Bureau of Police Research and Development.

As a teenager, Bedi was crowned the national junior tennis champion in 1966. Between 1965 and 1978, she won several titles at various national and state-level championships. After joining the IPS, Bedi served in Delhi, Goa, Chandigarh and Mizoram. She started her career as an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) in the Chanakyapuri area of Delhi, and won the President's Police Medal in 1979. Next, she moved to West Delhi, where she brought about a reduction in crimes against women. Subsequently, as a traffic police officer, she oversaw traffic arrangements for the 1982 Asian Games in Delhi and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 1983 in Goa. As Deputy Commissioner of Police of North Delhi, she launched a campaign against drug abuse, which evolved into the Navjyoti Delhi Police Foundation (renamed to Navjyoti India Foundation in 2007).

In May 1993, Bedi was posted to the Delhi Prisons as Inspector General (IG). She introduced several reforms at Tihar Jail, which won her the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1994. In 2003, Bedi became the first Indian and first woman to be appointed head of the United Nations Police and Police Advisor in the United Nations Department of Peace Operations. She resigned in 2007, to focus on social activism and writing. She runs the India Vision Foundation. During 2008–11, she hosted a court show '' Aap Ki Kachehri''. She was one of the key leaders of the 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement, and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in January 2015. She unsuccessfully contested the 2015 Delhi Assembly election as the party's Chief Ministerial candidate.

Early life and education

Kiran Peshawaria was born on 9 June 1949 in Amritsar, East Punjab, Dominion of India, into a Punjabi business family. She is the second child of Prakash Lal Peshawaria and Prem Lata (born Janak Arora). She has three sisters: Shashi, Reeta, and Anu. Her great-great-grandfather Lala Hargobind had migrated from Peshawar to Amritsar, where he set up a business. Bedi's upbringing was not very religious, but she was brought up in both Hindu and Sikh traditions (her grandmother was a Sikh, although her other family members were Hindu). Prakash Lal helped with the family's textile business, and also played Tennis. Bedi's grandfather Muni Lal controlled the family business and gave an allowance to her father. He cut this allowance when Bedi's elder sister Shashi was enrolled in the Sacred Heart Convent School, Amritsar. Although the school was 16 km away from their home, Shashi's parents believed it offered a better education than other schools. Muni Lal was opposed to his grandchild being educated in a Christian school. However, Prakash Lal declared financial independence and enrolled all his daughters, including Kiran, in the same school. Bedi started her formal studies in 1954, at the Sacred Heart Convent School in Amritsar. She participated in National Cadet Corps (NCC), among other extra-curricular activities. At that time, Sacred Heart did not offer science; instead, it had a subject called "household", which was aimed at grooming girls into being good housewives. When she was in Class 9, Bedi joined Cambridge College, a private institute that offered science education and prepared her for matriculation exam. By the time her former schoolmates at Sacred Heart cleared Class 9, she cleared the Class 10 (matriculation) exam. Bedi graduated in 1968, with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in English, from Government College for Women at Amritsar. The same year, she won the NCC Cadet Officer Award. In 1970, she obtained a Master's degree in Political Science from Panjab University in Chandigarh. From 1970 to 1972, Bedi taught as a lecturer at Khalsa College for Women in Amritsar. She taught courses related to political science. Later, during her career in the Indian Police Service, she also earned a Bachelors of Law degree from the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi in 1988 and a Doctorate of Philosophy from the Indian Institute of Technology - Delhi's Department of Social Sciences in New Delhi in 1993.

Tennis career

Inspired by her father, Bedi started playing tennis at the age of nine. As a teenage tennis player, she cut her hair short as it interfered with her game. In 1964, she played her first tournament outside Amritsar, participating in the national junior lawn tennis championship at Delhi Gymkhana. She lost in early rounds, but came back to win the trophy two years later, in 1966. As the national champion, she was eligible for entry to the Wimbledon junior championship, but was not nominated by the Indian administration.

Between 1965 and 1978, Bedi won several tennis championships, including:

Bedi was also a part of Indian team that beat Sri Lanka to win the Lionel Fonseka Memorial Trophy in Colombo. She continued playing tennis until the age of thirty, when she started focusing on her Indian Police Service career. In 1972, she married fellow tennis player Brij Bedi; the two had met on Service Club courts in Amritsar.

Indian Police Service Career

As a young woman, Bedi frequented the Service Club in Amritsar, where interaction with senior civil servants inspired her to take up a public service career. On 16 July 1972, Bedi started her police training at the National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie. She was the only woman in a batch of 80 men, and became the first woman IPS officer. After a 6-month foundation course, she underwent another 9 months of police training at Mount Abu in Rajasthan, and further training with Punjab Police in 1974. Based on a draw, she was allocated to the union territory cadre (now called AGMUT or Arunachal Pradesh- Goa-Mizoram-Union Territories cadre).

First posting in Delhi

Bedi's first posting was to the Chanakyapuri subdivision of Delhi in 1975. The same year, she became the first woman to lead the all-male contingent of the Delhi Police at the Republic Day Parade in 1975. Her daughter Sukriti (later Saina) was born in September 1975.

Chanakyapuri was an affluent area that included the Parliament building, foreign embassies, and the residences of the Prime Minister and the President. The crimes in the area were mainly limited to minor thefts, but political demonstrations (which sometimes turned violent) were a regular occurrence. During the 1970s, there were many clashes between Nirankari and Akali Sikhs. On 15 November 1978, a group of Nirankaris held a congregation near India Gate. A contingent of 700–800 Akalis organized a demonstration against them. DCP Bedi's platoon was deployed to stop the protesters and prevent violence. As the protesters resorted to brick-batting, Bedi charged them with a cane, although there was no tear gas squad to support her unit. One of the demonstrators ran towards her with a naked sword, but she charged him as well as other demonstrators with a cane. Ultimately, her unit was able to disperse the demonstrators. For this action, Bedi was awarded the President's Police Medal for Gallantry (1979), in October 1980.

In 1979, Bedi was posted to Delhi's West District, where there were not enough officers to handle the high volume of criminal activity. To compensate, she started recruiting civilian volunteers. Each village in the district was night patrolled by six civilians led by an armed policeman. She enabled anonymous reporting of any knowledge about crimes. She clamped down on bootlegging and the illicit liquor business to reduce crimes in the area. Bedi implemented an open door policy, which encouraged citizens to interact with her. She implemented a "beat box" system: a complaint box was installed in each ward, and the beat constables were instructed to have their lunch near this box at a set time each day. She regularly asked people if they knew about the beat constable assigned to their area, and also walked with the constables to raise their self-esteem. Within 3 months, there was a reduction in crimes. There was a drop in cases related to "eve teasing" (sexual harassment of women) and wife beating. This gained her the goodwill of local women, who also volunteered their services to help fight crime in the area.

In October 1981, Bedi was made DCP (Traffic). The preparation for the 1982 Asian Games had caused traffic snarls in the city. The construction of 19 sports stadiums and several flyovers had resulted in a number of blockades and diversions. Bedi encouraged coordination between the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, Delhi Electric Supply Undertaking and Delhi Development Authority. She clamped down on errant motorists with a heavy hand. She replaced challans (traffic tickets) with spot fines. Her team towed improperly parked vehicles using six tow trucks ("cranes") for traffic control. This earned her the nickname "Crane Bedi". On 5 August 1982, an Ambassador car (DHI 1817) belonging to Prime Minister Office was towed away by sub-inspector Nirmal Singh, as it was wrongly parked outside the Yusufzai Market at Connaught Place. Singh was fully supported by Bedi and her superior Ashok Tandon.

To raise funds for traffic guidance materials, Bedi presented Asian Games traffic management plan to a group of sponsors. The sponsors committed to providing road safety and other educational material worth 35,00,000. She also bought traffic police jeeps for her officers; for the first time, four wheelers were allocated to inspectors in the traffic unit. After the Asian Games were over, she was given ''Asian Jyoti'' award for excellence. She refused to accept the award for herself alone, and recommended that it be given to entire traffic unit.

Bedi did not spare errant motorists from the rich and influential section of the society, which resulted in a powerful lobby against her. Her victims included the Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation and her own sister-in-law. After the Asian Games were over, she was transferred to Goa for 3 years. According to contemporary rumours, Indira Gandhi's aides R. K. Dhawan and Yashpal Kapoor, as well as her yoga instructor Dhirendra Brahmachari (whom Bedi had personally fined for a wrongly parked car), played a role in her transfer. According to another theory, the loss of revenue resulting from her experiment of holding classes for traffic violators (instead of fining them) was a major factor in her transfer.

Her 7-year-old daughter suffered from nephritic syndrome since the age of 3, and was seriously ill at the time. Bedi requested the Home Ministry to not to transfer her out of Delhi until her daughter's condition became stable. According to Bedi, she had put herself in a "very vulnerable situation", and the only people who could help her were the ones "who had been offended by my 'equal enforcement of law'". Her request was not entertained, and she had to leave behind her daughter, who was too ill to accompany her.

Goa

Bedi arrived in Goa in March 1983, on a three-year assignment. A few months after her arrival, the Zuari Bridge was completed but not opened to public; the state government wanted Indira Gandhi to come from Delhi and inaugurate it formally. However, they were not able to secure confirmation from Indira Gandhi for several days. The public had to use ferries to transfer their vehicles across the Zuari River. One day, during a patrol, Bedi noticed that there was a huge mass at the ferry boarding point. She drove to the bridge, removed the blockades and diverted the traffic waiting at ferry to the bridge. This unofficial inauguration angered many politicians. In November 1983, Goa hosted the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet (CHOGM). Bedi involved NCC cadets in Goa for traffic regulation along the VIP routes.

Shortly after the CHOGM ended, her daughter's medical condition worsened. Bedi applied for leave, so that she could go to Delhi and take care of her daughter. Until this point, she had not taken privilege leave in her decade-long career, and her leaves had always lapsed. Inspector General of Police (IGP) Rajendra Mohan recommended her leave application, but the leave was not officially sanctioned by the Goa government. Bedi left for Delhi anyway, since she had enough leaves in her account. Her daughter was hospitalised at AIIMS for one week. After her daughter was discharged from hospital, Bedi decided to stay in Delhi until her recovery. Bedi sent a personal letter to the IGP, as well as a detailed explanation to the Goa government, with medical reports and certificates. However, in a statement to United News of India (UNI), the Goa Chief Minister Pratapsingh Rane declared her absconding and absent without leave. After seeing Bedi's daughter's condition in Delhi, UNI published a rebuttal to the Chief Minister's statement. This made Goa government even more hostile to Bedi.

Back to Delhi

After being declared absent without sanctioned leave, Bedi was not given any assignment for six months. When her daughter's condition became stable, she met the Union Home Secretary T. N. Chaturvedi, who reinstated her. She was assigned to the Railway Protection Force in New Delhi, as a Deputy Commandant. Six months later, after appealing to a senior official in Prime Minister's Office, she was reassigned to the Department of Industrial Development, as a deputy director. There, she worked under the Directorate General of Industrial Contingency (DGIC), as a strike mediator between labor and management. Bedi left DGIC in October 1985, and shortly after her departure, the organization was wound up as part of an economy drive.

In 1985, Police Commissioner Ved Marwah made a special request for Bedi to be assigned to the police headquarters. There, Bedi cleared several pending files and sanctioned 1,600 promotions in a single day to motivate the staff.

Campaign against drugs

In 1986, Bedi became DCP of Delhi's North District, where the primary problem was rampant drug abuse. At that time, Delhi had only one centre for treatment of drug addicts – ''Ashiana'', which was run by the New Delhi Municipal Corporation. With help from her superiors, Bedi set up a detox center in one of the police premises. The center relied on community donations of furniture, blankets, medicines and other supplies. It also received voluntary services from doctors and yoga teachers. Within a year, five more detox centers were set up. Each center was intended to serve up to 30 patients, but at one time, each center catered to around 100 patients. The initiative was widely noticed, and Bedi travelled all over India, giving presentations and lectures on the programme. Before she was transferred to a new post, she and 15 other police officers institutionalized the detox centers as Navjyoti Police Foundation for Correction, De-addiction and Rehabilitation. Bedi served as the General Secretary of the Foundation.

Lawyers' strike

In the 1980s, Bedi attracted ire of Delhi politicians and lawyers. First, she ordered lathi charge on a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) assembly in Red Fort area, and arrested its leaders. A few months later, she arrested Congress(I) MP J.P. Agarwal for violating curfew orders.

In January 1988, the Delhi Police caught a man stealing from a girl's purse at St. Stephen's College. A few weeks later, he was arrested again for trespassing into a women's toilet and writing obscene graffiti inside.The Lawyers Collective – A Legal Journal, Volume 3, Number 4, May 1988, Page 3 One of Bedi's officers arrested and handcuffed the man. When he was produced in the court, he was recognized as Rajesh Agnihotri, a lawyer practicing at the Tis Hazari Courts Complex. The man had given a different name when he was arrested, and his lawyer colleagues claimed that he had been falsely framed. The protesters also argued that lawyers must not be handcuffed even if there are proper grounds for their arrest. Bedi vociferously defended her officer's action. The lawyers organized a strike and led a procession to DCP (North) office. Not finding DCP Bedi at the office, the lawyers manhandled Additional DCP Sandhu. This led to a scuffle between the cops and the lawyers. The lawyers escalated their strike, and several politicians supported the lawyers in demanding suspension of Bedi.

On 21 January, the police lathi-charged the striking lawyers in Tis Hazari complex. This further enraged the lawyers. On 17 February, a mob of an estimated 600–1000 people led by the Congress corporator Rajesh Yadav arrived at Tis Hazari court. The mob was armed with brickbats, hockey sticks and small rods. It raised slogans in support of Bedi and Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. It stoned the lawyers' chambers and smashed the windscreens of their cars. The police force deployed in the area did not try to stop the mob violence, although some individual policemen tried to control the mob. Bedi denied any connivance in the incident. The police later arrested Rajesh Yadav, and charged him with rioting and conspiracy. The Congress distanced itself from Yadav and ousted him.

For the next two months, the lawyers stopped courts from functioning in Delhi and neighbouring states, demanding Bedi's resignation. The strike was called off after the Delhi High Court constituted a two-judge committee to investigate the matter. Known as Wadhwa Commission, the committee consisted of Justice DP Wadhwa and Justice NN Goswamy. KK Venugopal, the lawyers' counsel, produced evidence that on 17 February, all police stations in the zone knew that a 2000-strong mob was heading towards Tis Hazari Courts Complex, where the lawyers were on a hunger strike. Despite this, no police force was deputed to protect them. In its interim report, the Commission expressed concern over police lapses. The judges said that they wanted to investigate the matter further, and recommended transfer of five police officers (including Bedi) out of North Delhi, during the investigation period. Even before the report was made public, in April 1988, the Union Government transferred Bedi to the post of deputy director (Operations) in the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), also in Delhi. Two days later, the four other officers mentioned in the report were also transferred.

The members of the Delhi Bar Association were not satisfied with Bedi's transfer, and wanted her suspended. However, the Police Commissioner Ved Marwah refused to suspend Bedi. The commission's final report, released in April 1990, censured all the parties. The report stated that the arrest of Rajesh Agnihotri was justified, but his handcuffing was illegal. It also concluded that an "indiscriminate and unjustified" lathi-charge on the lawyers was ordered by Bedi, and that she had connived with the municipal councillor to organize the mob attack on the lawyers. The scholarly legal commentary was divided, with some supporting Bedi, citing her "unblemished" service record.

Mizoram

After Bedi was censured by the Wadhwa Commission, it was decided to transfer her out of Delhi. She wanted a challenging posting in either Andamans, Arunachal Pradesh or Mizoram. She hoped that this would lead to her reassignment to Delhi Police after a few years (after "hard" postings, government servants are unofficially entitled to a post they desire). She requested Joint Secretary (Union Territories) to transfer her to Mizoram, a remote border state in North-East India. When she didn't get any firm response, she wrote to the home secretary Naresh Kumar. Along with Bedi's batchmate Pardeep Singh, Naresh Kumar convinced the Joint Secretary to transfer her to Mizoram. They pointed out that officers who were given Mizoram posting refused to go there, while Bedi was volunteering to go there. Bedi reported to the Mizoram Government in Aizawl on 27 April 1990. Her designation was Deputy Inspector General (Range). Her parents and her daughter also moved to Mizoram.

Consumption of alcohol, especially home-brewed rice liquor ''Zu'', was very common in Mizoram. Several of Bedi's officers were alcoholics. At first, she didn't stop them since ''Zu'' was a part of Mizo culture, and she didn't want to be seen as someone who interfered with the local culture. Later, she opened an indoor de-addiction facility for alcoholic policemen. The major crime in the district was heroin smuggling across the Burmese border. A number of teenagers were drug addicts, with proxyvon and heroin being the most common drugs. Most of the repeat criminal offenders were alcoholic. Since Mizoram was a Christian-majority state, Bedi utilized Christian prayers to reduce drug and alcohol-induced criminal behavior. She declared Saturdays "prayer and rehabilitation day" at district police stations, despite protests from the Superintendent of Police, who was an atheist. Every Saturday, past criminals would be brought to the police station to pray and learn and to receive treatment for alcoholism.

While in Mizoram, she completed a major part of her Ph.D. research. (Later, in September 1993, she was awarded a doctorate by IIT Delhi's Department of Social Sciences, for her thesis on Drug Abuse and Domestic Violence.) During her stay in Mizoram, she also started writing her autobiography.

In September 1992, her daughter Sukriti applied for a seat in Lady Hardinge Medical College (Delhi), under a quota for Mizoram residents. Students of Mizoram launched a violent agitation against the allocation, on the grounds that she was a non-Mizo. Sukriti had topped the merit list with 89% marks, and was given seat from the Central pool, according to the government guidelines. Mizoram's Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla asked her to surrender the seat in "the larger interests of the state", although he accepted that "there was nothing illegal in her daughter getting the seat". Bedi refused to surrender the seat, saying that her daughter deserved the seat.

As the protests turned violent, Bedi received threats that her house would be set on fire. Her superiors told her that they could no longer protect her. She left Aizawl after submitting her leave application. Her parents and daughter had already left for Delhi by this time. Lal Thanhawla accused her of insubordination.

As Delhi Prisons Inspector-General

After leaving her Mizoram assignment incomplete in September 1992, Bedi had to wait eight months for a new posting. In May 1993, she was posted to the Delhi Prisons as inspector general (IG). The Tihar Jail of Delhi was built as a four-jail complex with a capacity of 2,500 prisoners. However, by the time Bedi became its in-charge, its prisoner population varied from 8,000 to 9,500. About 90% of its inmates were undertrials, who had been accused of non-bailable offences. Some of them had been waiting for years to get a trial in a badly clogged court system. The prison had a budget of 15 crore, which was just enough to pay for basic expenditure, leaving little for welfare programmes. Tihar was notorious as a violent and unmanageable place, and no officer wanted to be posted there. The post had been lying vacant for nine months, before Bedi was posted there.

Reforms at Tihar

Bedi decided to turn Tihar into a model prison. She introduced several reforms. She arranged separate barracks for the hardened criminals, who had been using their time in prison to recruit gang members, sell contraband and extort money. These prisoners unsuccessfully challenged Bedi in court for unfairly segregating them.

For other prisoners, Bedi arranged vocational training with certificates, so that they could find a job after their release. During her tenure, Indira Gandhi National Open University and National Open School set up their centers inside the prison. Legal cells were set up to help the undertrials. Bedi banned smoking in the prison. The move faced a lot of resistance from the staff as well as the prisoners. She introduced yoga and Vipassana meditation classes to change the prisoners' attitudes. She organized additional activities such as sports, prayer, and festival celebrations. She also established a de-addiction center, and pulled up or imprisoned the staff members involved in drug supply. A bank was also opened inside the prison. A bakery and small manufacturing units, including carpentry and weaving units, were set up in the jail. The profits from the products sold were put into the prisoners' welfare fund.

Bedi went on daily prison tours, observing the staff, listening to prisoners'complaints, inspecting food quality and evaluating overall management. She developed a panchayat system, where prisoners who were respected for their age, education, or character represented other inmates and met every evening with senior officers to sort out problems. She also established petition boxes so that prisoners could write to the IG about any issue. While the jail had suggestion boxes earlier too, the jail staff would destroy the complaints received through these boxes. On the other hand, the prisoners writing to Bedi received acknowledgment and information about the status of their petition.

In this prison reform programme, Bedi involved outsiders – including NGOs, schools, civilians and former inmates. As a result of Bedi's reforms, there was a drop in the fights and disturbances in the jail. Even the hardened criminals, who had been isolated in separate barracks, started behaving well. Bedi then arranged for them to attend education and meditation courses.

In May 1994, Bedi organized a 'health day', during which around 400 doctors and paramedics were invited to attend to Tihar's patients. Based on visits to two of Tihar's adolescent wards, a cardiologist associated with the Delhi Government's AIDS Control Programme, claimed that two-thirds of the inmates had acknowledged engaging in homosexual acts. He recommended distribution of condoms in the prison, a move supported by Delhi's Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and National AIDS Control Organisation. However, Kiran Bedi opposed the move pointing out that there were no HIV+ prisoners in Tihar. She stated that the distribution of condoms would encourage homosexual activity (illegal as per Section 377) among criminals. Based on a survey conducted through petition boxes, she claimed that incidence of consensual homosexual activity was negligible, and that the doctor's claim had hurt her prisoners. In response, the activist group ABVA filed a writ petition in the Delhi High Court demanding distribution of condoms in Tihar. Bedi termed the move as an attempt to force "western solutions" on "Tihar Ashram