Will Kiran Bedi prove to be BJP’s Trump Card?
January 21, 2015
When stuck in Delhi’s traffic jam during the evening rush hours on the evening of October 31 last year, Kiran Bedi abandoned her car midway to hitch a ride to the United Nations Information Centre’s office to attend the launch of the 70th anniversary of the United Nations. This time she has hitched a ride yet again and the destination is Delhi Chief Minister’s residence! Unlike the October adventure, when the driver was unknown, the January venture seems well calculated. She has got the lift from none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself and her political journey has got a dream start!
Bickering within BJP over Kiran Bedi
Kiran Bedi’s induction into the party was initiated by Modi and the BJP president Amit Shah themselves. Together the triumvirate seem to have gate-crashed into the much vaunted cadre-system of the party and despite being a total outsider, who was even caustically critical of Modi during her association with Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement a few years ago, she has turned things upside down in the saffron brigade. So much so that a senior Congress leader quipped that she was hired by the BJP leadership to tame the ‘BJP goons’ and inculcate ‘discipline’ in the party. Within days after joining the party, she met the mayors of the three civic districts who briefed her on the functioning of the corporations. She summoned all seven BJP Members of Parliament from Delhi to her residence for a review of the political scenario before the state elections. While four MPs attended the meeting, what was noteworthy was that she did not extend the time of meeting to accommodate Union Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan, who was the BJP’s CM face in the last elections and is the MP from Chandni Chowk! The minister though, could talk to her over phone later. The others were Udit Raj and Manoj Tiwari, who “informed” Bedi of their prior commitments. Bedi has been calling the shots and the party leadership seems well behind her. While the party workers were asked by BJP general secretary and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh pointperson Ram Lal to call her Kiran didi (elder sister), Tiwari, who was earlier critical of Bedi’s moves, had to retract his statement where he said she “should be humble”.
Kiran Bedi’s Strong Points
What makes Bedi so special for the BJP?
Consider these points:
1. The BJP reverses its earlier decision and decided to project Bedi as the party’s CM face
2. She now shares space with Modi and Shah in the BJP election posters
3. A special room, befitting a party general secretary, is being refurnished for her at the BJP’s Delhi office
Bedi has a reputation of a strict disciplinarian. Her career record as a police officer has remained unblemished. As the first woman officer of the India Police Service, she is already an icon. None other a person than Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley hailed her as an ‘able administrator”. Yet, these attributes could not be the reason for making her so special for the BJP.
BJP’s political compulsions behind roping in Kiran Bedi
With the Broom giving a tough fight to the Lotus, Arvind Kejriwal’s strategy was to turn the contest into a ‘Keriwal versus Modi’ affair in the absence of any CM face of the BJP. While Modi’s magic had worked in the last Lok Sabha elections as well as the subsequent state elections in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir, on all the above instances, a strong anti-incumbency wave against the ruling governments (read either the Congress or the Congress supported governments) too was in play. The same could not be the case in Delhi where there is no government for the last one year. Party insiders, therefore, concede that a CM face became necessary to insulate Modi from any post-poll embarrassment. And who else could fit the bill than Bedi? After all, it takes fire to fight fire!
Similarities between Kiran Bedi and Kejriwal
Consider the similarities between Kejriwal and Bedi:
1. Both are former bureaucrats
2. Both are anti-corruption crusaders and were part of India Against Corruption movement
3. Both are Magsaysay Award winners
4. Both are protégés of Anna Hazare and were key members of his anti-graft movement in 2011
The most crucial similarities though are that both are estranged allies who, as is proved now, nurtured political ambitions. Yet unlike Kejriwal, who has 49-days’ experience of running government, Bedi is a complete political greenhorn. Her agenda for Delhi as of now revolves around five ‘S’ to make the city –Saakshar (Literate) , Swastha (Healthy), Sakshum (Capable), Surakshit (Secured) and Sanskari (Ethical). Besides, being a woman icon, she has also taken up the issue of women’s safety and suggested a proper coordination between six ‘Ps’ to tackle the issue — people, politicians, policing, prosecution, prisons and the press. She suggests nodal office to oversee the coordination between the six ‘Ps’.
Will Kiran Bedi Prove to be BJP’s Best Bet against Kejriwal?
However, the biggest agenda for the BJP is to negate the growing influence of Kejriwal. That Bedi was critical of Kejriwal’s decision to float his political outfit, the AAP, must have weighed heavily in the BJP’s scheme of things that ostensibly prompted the party think tank to rope her in to tame Kejriwal in his own den. But wasn’t Bedi initially reluctant to join politics? Or was it just a façade? She indeed had dropped enough hints of her political ambitions. Consider that her name was doing rounds as a possible BJP CM face even in the last Assembly elections till the party opted for Dr Harsh Vardhan as its CM face. Thereafter in May last year too, she dropped enough hints saying that she would consider “if such an offer (of becoming CM candidate) is made”.
The negotiations were on since long though Bedi chose to pooh-pooh any speculation over her becoming the BJP’s CM face. Indeed she bided her time well to clinch the deal.
Her decision does reflect on her sharp political sense and bargaining capacity. While an eleventh hour foray minimised possibilities of manoeuvring by her detractors, she read the leadership crisis in Delhi BJP well, and did bargain hard for a position.
The pressure though, now builds up on Bedi to launch an effective campaign to counter Kejriwal. The BJP realises that it requires a clear majority to rule Delhi. Bedi, obviously, is its trump card but her efficacy remains to be proved.
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