With baton and crane

KIRAN BEDI - The Kindly Baton: Meenakshi Saxena; Books India International, 2/35, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi-110002. Rs. 275.

KIRAN BEDI is a living legend. The author has described her as ``Kindly Baton'' redefining her initials K. B. Making a pun on her first name, people had called her ``Crane'' Bedi, when she handled the traffic problem in Delhi during the Asian Games, by using a crane to lift all wrongly parked cars, including the car of the Prime Minister.

Kiran Bedi gained both national and international attention for being the first high-ranking woman police officer. She has made a distinctive imprint of her personality in a profession which is traditionally regarded as a monopoly of the males. She made her mark in whatever assignment was given to her. Her remarkable show of courage in dealing with rioters and hooligans created instant history. She earned an invitation to breakfast from Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

In 1979 she exhibited conspicuous courage and determination in controlling the unruly Akali demonstrators at a grave personal risk to her life, which earned her the President's Gallantry Award, and brought her into the limelight within seven years of her service. In 1980, she was declared ``Woman of the year'' and won the seventh Jawaharlal Nehru National Solidarity Award and in 1982 she won the Shiromani Award. From 1963 to 1978 Kiran made herself a personification of tennis. She achieved excellence in the field. She represented India in the Indo-Sri Lankan Tennis Tournament.

Wherever Kiran worked she left behind a tradition of innovative hard work and opened new vistas of work and responsibilities. To promote police-public relations she introduced ``Beat box system'' and distributed posters and pamphlets on public relations. Kiran set up Navjyoti under the auspices of the Delhi Police Foundation for correction, de-addiction and rehabilitation. It owes its existence and developments to the vision and dynamic leadership of Kiran. In 1991 she won the Asia Region Award for Drug Abuse Prevention and Control.

As Inspector General, Prisons, Kiran ably handled the infamous Tihar Jail with more than 9,500 inmates. She used the opportunity to bring about notable reforms in prison administration, which earned her the famous Magsaysay Award - the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize - in 1994. The same year she was given the Bharatiya Sanskriti Puraskar (Indian Culture) Award for her exemplary performance. With the Magsaysay award money Kiran founded a Trust called the ``Indian Vision Foundation''. The general objective of the Foundation was stated to be ``Towards a better India''.

Kiran's prison reforms brought her recognition from countries all over the world. The U.S. invited her to a national prayer breakfast with President Bill Clinton in 1995. She attended the United Nations World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen, Denmark. She visited British Prisons. She was also awarded the Nehru Fellowship to work on prison reforms.

Kiran has come a long way in her career. As a young officer in 1975, she was appreciated for taking up a job that is traditionally associated with males. A decade later in 1985, she was known as one of the most efficient police officers. Her being a woman was no disqualification. After another decade in 1995, Kiran has transformed herself into a ``phenomenon''. Indians are proud of her because of the honours she has brought to the country.

The book is very commendable. The author had done a long drawn exercise for over a decade to write this excellent biography on a leading personality of our times, who is at once both popular and controversial. She must be congratulated on her diligent study of a charismatic personality. The book would appeal not only to those who are interested in knowing about Kiran Bedi, but also to those who wish to gauge the winds of change sweeping over India that are influencing the status of women.

PON PARAMAGURU

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