New Delhi: The year was 1988. The place, Tis Hazari court. Kiran Bedi, then Deputy commissioner of the Delhi Police, led a lathi-charge against lawyers after protests broke out against the arrest of a lawyer for petty theft. Bedi ended up ordering two lathi-charges, and was even indicted for it. Yet, she remained steadfast. “…I’m not giving up now and we are going to fight back,” she had said.
Thirty-one years later, outside the Delhi Police headquarters near ITO Tuesday, Commissioner Amulya Patnaik stood facing a sea of angry policemen, who were protesting the assault on one of their own by a lawyer at the Tis Hazari court Monday. Patnaik appealed for calm and asked policemen to return to their duties, and to have faith in the system. But he was drowned out by a chorus of jeers and boos.
“Police commissioner kaisa ho, Kiran Bedi jaisa ho (What should the police commissioner be like? Like Kiran Bedi),” chanted the police personnel.
Delhi Police personnel hold placard with a picture of former Delhi Special CP, Kiran Bedi that reads "We need you", outside the Police Head Quarters (PHQ) in ITO. They are protesting against the clash that broke out between police & lawyers at Tis Hazari Court on 2nd November. https://t.co/503H4UeQCF pic.twitter.com/EpNKvvrXsM
— ANI (@ANI) November 5, 2019
“We need a leader like Kiran Bedi because she has always had a very clean image, she was a fearless leader and was always ready to take charge,” said a protesting police officer.
Many were seen holding up placards saying: ‘We need you Kiran Bedi’.
A police icon
Bedi, currently the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry, is known for several accomplishments, but is remembered by police personnel for how she stood by the force.
Two years after the 1988 incident, the Justice D.P. Wadhwa Committee, in its 65-page report, termed the lathi-charge ordered by Bedi “indiscriminate and unjustified”, and called the handcuffing of the advocate illegal. However, this did not rattle her in any way, and at the time, she said: “We knew we were fighting against a bias right from the beginning… We are going to fight back.”
Bedi is celebrated for being the first woman to join the Indian Police Service in 1972. Subsequently, she was also Deputy Inspector General of Police with the Narcotics Control Bureau and the DCP of North Delhi. After her police career, she turned to politics, joining the Anna Hazare-led movement against corruption, and later the BJP in 2015. She was the party’s chief ministerial candidate for the 2015 Delhi assembly elections. At the time, some lawyers were willing to back her, while some burnt effigies.
Why the protests
Tuesday’s protests came two days after a parking row between lawyers and a policeman at Tis Hazari court escalated, resulting in several being rushed to a hospital and a police vehicle being burnt. While the Bar Council of India said lawyers “indulging in hooliganism” should be reported, a video of some lawyers assaulting a policeman on a bike was extensively shared on social media, further fuelling the situation.
Roads around the police headquarters and courts were blocked Tuesday, with scores of police personnel coming on to the streets demanding action against the lawyers. The Congress called out Union Home Minister Amit Shah for his silence on the matter, saying the situation was a ‘new low’ for law and order in the country.
Also read: If we are abused or beaten up, should we remain quiet — protesting Delhi policemen ask