Kiran Bedi says : Anna & Youth made Lokpal campaign a success

Attributing the success of anti-corruption movement to people's participation, Team Anna members and former IPS officer Kiran Bedi on Saturday implored the young delegates at the Mind Rocks India Today Youth Summit 2011 that their support should continue so that the government is forced to legislate a strong Lokpal Bill during the winter session later this year.

"The movement was a success because of you and all credit goes to Anna Hazare," Bedi told the summit, which was held on Saturday in Delhi. She attributed her association with the movement to RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal, calling it an 'opportunity.'

She called for people to end their indifference towards how government is run, else it would give the people in power a free run to do corrupt dealings. They should be held accountable, she said, calling the government draft of the Lokpall bill ineffective.

Bedi said the government proposes to create two CBIs - saying the first CBI will be under the government control, while the other, the new one, would only investigate new cases of corruption. She asserted that a senior minister told her that the government is worried that an independent CBI under Lokpal may reopen old corruption cases like that of Bofors gun deal.

The fear of going to jail and usurping of property created by corrupt means will act as an effective deterrent for people like Suresh Kalmadi and A. Raja, she added.

On being asked what makes her sure the Jan Lokpal will not become corrupt, Bedi said, "It's very transparent. It has a search committee and it is very accountable. All its functioning will become website-oriented. It will be a harbinger of change."

Bedi summed up saying that she is still youthful at heart. Her passion, determination and drive to be just and fearless against pressure and adversaries remain intact. That is so because she trained hard as a sportswoman earlier in her life. She told the youth that what they do now in their formative years will have a lasting bearing on the rest of their life. She shared her experiences with the youth on how to deal with life. 

The former IPS officer, who calls herself a rebel by nature, told the gathering, her passion to stand against the unjust has remained undiminished since her childhood. She attributed this to her devotion to sports. Bedi was an ace tennis player and women tennis's Asian champion at the age of twenty.

Sports gave right focus to immense store of energy in her that helped her lifelong, she said. Bedi feels spiritual, mental and physical are all essential components of education and sports provide best training in the formative years. 

Saying she never lost her focus in life, Bedi said she joined the Indian Police Service at the age of 22 in 1972, a profession considered taboo for women. She added soon she became a role model for men during training years. She called it 'destiny' that she was transferred to Delhi. In 1975, she had a frank talk with the then IG Police (now called Commissioner) Delhi, P.R. Rajgopal, to persuade him to lead the January 26 parade in 1976. "This is one event that announced the arrival of women in the police force," she says raising fist in the air.

She never looked back. In 1982, Bedi issued a ticket to the driver of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi when her car was wrongly parked. "She was in power, so was I," Bedi said, asserting the point that policing has to be just and equitable. There cannot be two different standards for the rich and the poor.

She explained that she was perhaps not made the commissioner of Delhi Police, because she would have not bowed down to the will of politicians. Earlier, she was not given the charge of anti-terror wing of Delhi Police simply because she would have released people held illegally in the name of anti-terror investigations, she said.

Motivating the youth, she said, "Had I not been somebody, I would have been nobody. So, I never lost track of my priority. At 16, I knew when to say yes, when to say no... What you did in teenage returns to you at 20-23."