It has been just a day since she entered politics, but former IPS officer KIRAN BEDI already has chalked out the agenda for Delhi.
The face of Delhi BJP and perhaps also its chief ministerial candidate for the February 7 Assembly polls, she has given a fresh lease of life to the State unit in these crucial days, besides, projecting herself as a strong contender for the post. In conversation with Sweta Goswami, Bedi talks of her priorities for the national Capital, her “6-P” formula to ensure “women’s safety” and the idea of a “Citizen Police Force”.
You were supposed to join the BJP last year during the lok Sabha elections. What took you so long to actually join the partyIJ
There is no constant in this world. With life comes change, which we have to say yes to. I haven’t planned anything. I am a believer of destiny. I joining the party came by at this time, things worked and I said yes. The kind of leadership that Amit Shah has shown is commendable and inspirational.
Now that you are going to fight the elections and are a politician, what will be your priorities for DelhiIJ
Women’s security will be my top priority. Second will be cleanliness of the city and third, is going to be civic amenities like power, water and sanitation. The problem with Delhi is that there are mechanisms in place but there is hardly any cohesiveness between them. But here, we also must be aware that there is nothing as less or more important. Issues like corruption and inflation shall come only after these issues.
Delhi needs a holistic approach as a solution to all its problems. From the topmost official to the simple man sweeping the streets and from infants to the aged, everybody shall be given equal importance.
Please elaborate on your plan toward women’s security in the Capital.
I have already devised a 6-P formula for security. The first ‘P’ implies ‘People’ where we need to sensitise parents, teachers, principals and also faith preachers like priests and pradhans. The second stands for Politicians because they are the ones who give rules, regulations and resources. We got the Criminal law Amendment Act (2013) only after the December 16 gangrape case. The ordinance on sexual harassment came after the Vishaka judgement. Politicians need to question why these laws came so late.
Police is the third ‘P’. The police should have a two-fold duty — Response and Prevention. Community policing will ensure prevention and in-depth and unbiased investigation would signify a proper response mechanism where the emphasis should be on forensics.
Fourth is Prosecution where we need more fast-track courts and ones which are efficient.
Fifth is ‘Prisons’. Today, when we ponder upon rape cases we find that many rapists were those who were released from prisons. Be it in the Shakti Mills case or even in the Uber cabs case, the accused were the ones who were out on bail.
Press is the sixth and final one. It has to deliver responsibly.
Each part of the ‘6-P’ should have a plan and what is more important is that there should be alignment among all six. Right now all these six parts are working but they are not working together.
What about citizen policingIJ
Civil defence is the answer to citizen policing. I will not only strengthen but also recall, retrain and redeploy volunteers in civil defence. If Delhi Police has, say a force of one lakh then we will have a citizen police force of maybe 50,000. Every civil defence volunteer gets an honorarium of nearly Rs 200 a day. So if a student who is on distant learning devotes a few hours on civil defense, she/he will get paid which will be a good incentive. People are not aware, but there is a budget for this and it is directly under the Delhi Government. There shall be a proper screening system to take in volunteers for the citizen police force.
From where do you plan to fight the elections and is there any bitter feeling because of the way things turned out with AAP chief Arvind KejriwalIJ
I will contest from wherever the party fields me. I am not the chooser of my own constituency. There is no ill-will towards Kejriwal. I live in the present and work to the maximum of my capabilities.
You joining the BJP is seen in a positive light by most of the people, but it has also drawn criticism from various quarters. Your anti-Modi tweets, for example, were trending a lot on your joining day and many say that you have deleted your old tweets now.
I have deleted nothing. One needs to understand that tweets are situational at times.