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First they called her "that girl". Then, "madam". Eventually, they referred to her as "sir."
Easily one the most recognizable faces in India and abroad, "super cop" Kiran Bedi, India's first and till-date its highest ranking woman police officer, has allowed Australian film-maker Megan Doneman to capture her incredible life on camera in Doneman's powerful documentary, Yes Madam, Sir, recently screened at the annual 3rd I international South Asian film festival in San Francisco.
I don't think I can do justice to her life and career in this post. And I don't want this to be a review of the film, because the protagonist and her struggles are just too daunting to overlook. What I'll attempt to do here is share the most telling moments of her life as I have learned through the years and gleaned from the documentary.
"Yes Madam, Sir" Official Movie Trailer
"When she qualified in the police service all hell broke loose" -- That recollection by her mentor and former Delhi Police cop Gautam Kaul pretty much defines Kiran Bedi's journey. This citation for her 1994 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service-- often referred to as Asia's Nobel Prize -- gives us a glimpse of her challenging yet rewarding life. She is one of four daughters born to a set of exceptionally visionary, liberal and supportive parents who strove to break tradition and raise their girls to be educated, strong and professional in a male-centric India. Before she set off on her trailblazing path of becoming India's first female and most respected cop, Bedi ruled the hard court as India's national and international tennis champ.
Once she fought her way into the elite Indian Police Service (this is a central service unlike local cops), she moved up the ranks defying convention at every stage, amidst accusations by the establishment of insubordination and publicity-mongering, and utter adulation by the press and the public alike. She barely ever completed an assignment: her constant run-ins with authority made her the ideal candidate for a series of controversial transfers. But wherever she was posted, she made sure she tried something different and defying.
Her biggest success, however, that won her international accolades and recognition, remains her path-breaking work at Asia's most populated and then notorious Tihar Jail. That was meant to be a "punishment posting" to put this renegade officer in her place. Instead, she is credited with turning it around into a correctional and rehabilitation facility. Today the jail boasts of its various programs and is seen as a model around the world.
She topped off her career with an assignment with the United Nations.
Barely hovering around 5 feet, Bedi always stood tall among her colleagues and superiors. To say that she lived up to her name -- "kiran" means a ray of light -- would be an understatement. She was more like the blazing sun: some basked in her warmth, others were scalded by her intensity.
As Business Standard reporter Anjuli Bhargava says in an interview with Bedi:
[S]he's a bit like America, you either love it or hate it, very few are indifferent to it.
But Kiran Bedi was also a vulnerable human being: her family was both her pillar and Achilles' heel. Yes Madam, Sir exposes that vulnerability, bringing her that much closer to the people for whom she broke ranks and opened doors.
In 2007, she quit the force when a junior officer was promoted to the most sought-after post of Delhi police commissioner. She wanted it. She expected it. She didn't get it. At that time she was pushing papers at a police research bureau, something she realized was pointless since previous reports were lying unimplemented. There was no point continuing under a junior. She quit.
Before the screening of the film, I asked her if she was ever given an explanation for the suppression: "They never do. The Indian system hasn't grown that much."
I asked her why she didn't fight back. "I didn't want to waste my time."
Bedi has since been engaged in social causes. She also has a popular TV show along the lines of Judge Judy, Aap ki Kachehri Kiran ke Saath (Your Court with Kiran).
The documentary's website puts it nicely:
A modern day Gandhi, Bedi is an intriguing paradox: deified by millions for her commitment to social justice and her public stance against corruption; vilified by the establishment as a publicity
