The Hindu : New Delhi News : End of an innings for Kiran Bedi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 27, 2007
ePaper

New Delhi

New Delhi

End of an innings for Kiran Bedi

Staff Reporter

– PHOTO: PTI

IT’S OVER: Kiran Bedi, India’s first woman IPS officer, leaving office in New Delhi on Wednesday after her plea for premature voluntary retirement was accepted by the Union Government.

NEW DELHI: Hours after the Union Government’s decision to accept her plea for voluntary retirement was made public on Wednesday, the country’s first woman IPS officer lamented the premature end of her 35-year-long illustrious career as “truly not imagined…but necessary to drive home a point”.

“It has been a life worth living. It has been a profession of my soul and heart. And truly, the end it has met was not imagined. But this was what the situation had demanded and it was necessary to drive home a point,” said Kiran Bedi without trying to hide her emotions.

Ms. Bedi, who had been ignored for the hot-shot post of Delhi’s Police Commissioner earlier this year, said: “You cannot be valued in one position and devalued in another. If the Government is really serious about [police] reforms, then why deny me the place from where I can effect them? What’s the point in doing paper reforms when there is no dearth of such recommendations lying un-implemented.”

The much talked about Magsaysay Award winner had submitted her application for voluntary retirement this past mid-November saying she wanted to quit in order to pursue her academic and social interests. The Government last week indicated that it would continue to avail itself of her services for its National Police Mission project, but she had rejected the offer saying she was not willing to work “for the Government” any more.

Saying that she was “grateful to the Government for not having delayed the approval” to her voluntary retirement plea, Ms. Bedi said she would continue to work on police and prison reforms besides pursuing other academic and social interests.

“I am already working on women empowerment in Panchayati Raj and will continue to work to groom future leaders,” she added.

A fulfilling journey

Looking back at her three-decade-long career, Dr. Bedi said: “I started alone, but today when I am laying down office we have more than 200 women IPS officers, several women’s battalions and companies serving the country. The scintillating performance of women personnel in the Central Reserve Police Force as United Nations’ peacekeepers is doing us all proud. Even the Government wants more woman IPS officers. It is great where we stand today. It has been an exceedingly and overwhelmingly fulfilling journey.”

Enumerating her achievements as head of the Capital’s high-security Tihar Central Jail, Ms. Bedi said prison reforms introduced during her tenure had gone around the world and some of the programmes were even adopted outside India.

“ ‘Doing Time, Doing Vipassana’, the film that describes the way in which Vipassana had been used to change the behaviour of the inmates won acclaims around the world,” said Ms. Bedi.

Ms. Bedi, who had earned the sobriquet “Crane Bedi” for her firmness in dealing with traffic violations in the Capital, has won a number of awards over the years, including the President’s Gallantry Award. She also had the honour of serving as the United Nations’ Police Adviser.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi