Battle of Delhi: Kiran Bedi vs Arvind Kejriwal

VIEWPOINT

AMITABH SHUKLA

Perhaps one of the most high decibel polls after the Lok Sabha battle is being fought in Delhi, the result of which could have far reaching implications for all the contesting parties. BJP, on a dream run, knows that symbolically Delhi may be a half State but the outcome would suggest consolidation, winning momentum and would herald positive vibes for the crucial Bihar Assembly polls later this year. That perhaps explains why Kiran Bedi was inducted despite having the style and an image of a non-conformist and is being projected as such a good catch by the party when the poll battle is on a feverish pitch.

For the Aam Aadmi Party, it is perhaps now or never. The party has realised that if it doesn’t win Delhi this time round, its cadre would start dwindling and begin desertions towards other parties. It also knows well that the space which Congress has ceded is vacant and it was the opportune time to step into that. Congress is hardly in the picture to present a triangular contest this time round. Its vote base is consistently slipping and in Lok Sabha polls, it failed to take a lead in even one of the 70 Assembly segments.

Though it has brought in Ajay Maken as the leader in Delhi and tried to aggressively counter both its rivals — AAP and BJP, it is not cutting much ice. It will have to do a major overhaul, undertake an image building exercise and needs time to get back the space it has ceded to AAP and the momentum which is with BJP. A section in BJP perhaps thinks that by getting Bedi on board and projecting her as the chief ministerial candidate, it has won half the battle. The way her entry in the party was publicised with party chief Amit Shah, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and who is who of BJP, it is quite clear that if the party comes to power, it won’t look beyond her when it comes to making her the Chief Minister.

Bedi has built her image assiduously over the years. She knows how to communicate and involve the media and people in her causes. She also knows the pulse of the middle class being the first woman IPS officer of the country. But despite the hype, as an IPS officer, her track record has not been bright. That perhaps explains how she didn’t get Delhi Police Commissioner’s job. The disappointment of not becoming the Delhi Police Commissioner is still there with her as she mentioned this in her Press conference when she joined BJP.

Senior journalist Pankaj Vohra, who knows Delhi by the back of his hand and has reported and analysed all aspects of the metropolitan for three and a half decades, wrote a not so charitable article about her listing her failures in successive postings. He says it was her poor track record that came in the way of her becoming the Commissioner of Delhi Police. Only her stint in the United Nations, as DG of Tihar Jail and her winning the Magsaysay award helped her get to where she did in the service.

Vohra says Bedi must be one of the very few IPS officers in the country who has not been awarded the two medals — the Police Medal of Meritorious Service (after 15 years service) and the Police Medal for Distinguished Service (after 21 years), which everyone gets as a matter of routine. He goes on to say that she has had difficulty in completing her tenures anywhere. She has always left her postings under circumstances which would have attracted extreme disciplinary action had Bedi not been a woman and media darling.

According to Vohra, she was in Goa during the CHOGM in the early 1980s and left her post after a disagreement with the Secretary, R&AW and DIB without informing her immediate superior. She was in Mizoram where an agitation erupted because of her and she left for Delhi quietly without informing her boss who discovered to his horror that the operational officer was missing from her post only when he enquired about her the following day. In Delhi, she had a controversial tenure in the West District. As Traffic DCP, she is remembered as “Crane” Bedi, but she had to vacate the position on account of her mishandling of the traffic problem.

As DCP North in 1988, she got into a major problem with Tis Hazari lawyers. A committee headed by Justice DP Wadhwa, then a sitting Judge of the Delhi High Court, passed severe strictures against her. After that, was never allowed to hold a field posting and was never made additional or joint commissioner of either the Range or Traffic. Her stint as Inspector General in Chandigarh was also shortlived when she returned after differences with the administrator.

So given her track record of the past and deserting key responsibilities as an IPS officer, some in the BJP are questioning the merit of bringing Bedi as the chief ministerial candidate. They say that even if she could swing the middle class votes to some extent, most of which is in any case with BJP at this point, she should serve her time in the party and show discipline as a party member for a while before being elevated to a position like the Chief Minister.

AAP is dusting out the track record of Bedi to project her poor record vis-à-vis Arvind Kejriwal, another former civil servant and a colleague of Bedi in the Anna Hazare movement. Kejriwal had a rather short tenure in the Indian Revenue Service and he spent some part of it on Right to Information activism. So in public domain his mistakes are all in the political field ever since he formed AAP and became the Chief Minister and deserted the chair. His rivals in Congress and BJP have described him as a “Naxalite”, a “deserter”, an agitationist who does not know the basics of governance, a person with a single-point agenda, a dictator, the muffler man, so on and so forth.

But no one can accuse Bedi or Kejriwal of corrupt practices either when they were in government service or in social life. Both Bedi and Kejriwal have a lot of similarities. Besides having excellent communication skills, they have a charisma due what many call as “image management”. That perhaps explains why BJP brought in Bedi to counter Kejriwal. Both negate each other well, AAP would find it difficult to attack Bedi, The former IPS officer too would not be able to convincingly attack Kejriwal in electioneering. But the difference would be in the post poll scenario. While Bedi will have to go by the party dictum of the BJP and the rules framed by its bosses, Kejriwal writes his own political rules and is extremely innovative as we have seen over a period of time.

I do not know the reasons why Dr Harsh Vardhan, the soft spoken doctor from Krishna Nagar and Union Minister was dumped as the chief ministerial candidate this time round. He was BJP’s face in 2013 Assembly polls and almost got the party near the half way mark. He was then asked to contest Lok Sabha elections, made Union Health Minister but soon dumped and given an insignificant portfolio. He could have been a good choice but if someone like Jagdish Mukhi or Satish Upadhyay had been projected as chief ministerial candidates versus Kejriwal, the party would have certainly lost in the initial round itself when a build up takes place for polls. Remember, in 2008 polls, BJP projected Vijay Kumar Malhotra as the chief ministerial candidate against Sheila Dikshit and the day the announcement came, party lost the polls.

Clearly the battlelines are drawn in the Kiran Bedi versus Arvind Kejriwal battle. If one scrutinizes the track record of both, it does not inspire great confidence. But then, electoral battles are fought on public perception and on that count, both Bedi and Kejriwal are on an equal footing. This increases the possibility of a real photo finish in the most keenly watched elections after the Lok Sabha polls. (January 19, 2015)

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