New Delhi, July 25
Kiran Bedi, who lost the race for the job of Delhi’s police commissioner, today blamed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for picking “someone junior” to her for the coveted post.
The Ministry of Home Affairs on Wednesday appointed special commissioner (Administration) Yudhvir Singh Dadwal, a 1974-batch IPS officer as Delhi’s new police chief. Dadwal will take over from K K Paul Thursday.
“The decision for selecting someone junior to me for the top city post is truly unfair. How can the Prime Minister simply disregarded seniority when he has the final word in the cabinet,” asked a disappointed Bedi, who was expecting to be the capital’s first woman police commissioner.
“It’s complete injustice to me and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has let me down. I am completely disappointed with the government and the bureaucracy,” an angry Bedi, one of India’s most decorated police officers, said.
“Prime Minister Singh was my last hope and he should have respected merit. He has not only let me down but the entire police system. It is also a rejection of the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi who had recommended my name for the post. It is also a rejection of the people of Delhi who wanted to see me as their first police commissioner.”
A combative Bedi, 58, said she was not going to take things lying down and would fight this “injustice.”
As a first step, she has gone on leave from the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD), a police think tank.
A 1972-batch Indian Police Service officer, Bedi is two years senior to Dadwal and was keen to take charge of Delhi Police that she has served in various capacities with distinction.
Bedi became a household name in the Indian capital when she took charge of Delhi Traffic Police, earning in the process the sobriquet ‘Crane Bedi’.
She then went on to hold several posts, including as deputy inspector general of police in Mizoram, as inspector general of police in Chandigarh, director general of Narcotics Control Bureau, inspector general of police at Tihar Jail, joint commissioner of police training and as special commissioner in charge of intelligence.
She then went on deputation to the United Nations. She won the Magsaysay Award for government service. She later became the director general of the BPRD.
— IANS
