Click to play videoWomen empowerment - the agenda endorsed and publicised as the key reason behind Pratibha Patil's appointment as India's first woman president - lost all merit when it came to giving India's first woman IPS officer the post of the police commissioner.
Kiran Bedi, the Director General of Bureau of Police Research and Development told CNN-IBN that the appointment of Dadwal, her junior, sends out a wrong message, indicating gender bias was behind her being denied the post.
Many believe the incident in an apt reflection of India’s patriarchal society, indicating only certain “type” of women can rise in corridors of power.
Hence a demure, non-threatening figurehead Pratibha Patil - who keeps her head covered with her sari pallu - makes an ideal President for UPA, while the short-haired, no-nonsense cop Kiran Bedi - who matches her male counterparts talent-for-talent - is seen a misfit for another top position.
Former Chief Election Commissioner, T S Krishnamurthy; India's High Commissioner to Bangladesh Veena Sikri and Kiran Bedi debated if India’s power circuit was patriarchal on CNN-IBN show Face the Nation conducted by Sagarika Ghose.
No woman, no try?
The outrage over Bedi not being appointed as the Delhi police chief is rooted in the merit argument. While Bedi alleges gender discrimination, sources in the Home Ministry say that it was her non-involvement in active policing that has acted as a deterrent.
However, Krishnamurthy blamed the antiquated, backward looking bureaucracy.
"All I can say is that there is a serious need to reframe and re-organise police administration," he said.
Defying claims that a woman is denied important posts for constraints like maternity and family obligations, Krishnamurthy said, "I don't think there are any constraints. Every woman is capable of doing as much a man's job. But the government appointments are made on various considerations, some of them may not be justifiable while some may be. This applies to all the services."
In a similar case Veena Sikri, India's High Commissioner to Bangladesh had filed an RTI plea when despite being higher in seniority, was denied the post of foreign secretary by the ministry. Shiv Shankar Menon was appointed instead.
On being asked whether gender is to be blamed, Sikri said "I think the broader issue here is the need for transparency. Ther should not be a gender bias in high-level appointments. I think this applies across the board to all the services. We want an independent bureaucracy, which is neither loyal nor disloyal. An independent bureaucracy is one of the key elements of good governance."
"When I filed an RTI plea, I wanted information on how the process of selection was done. I wanted to know why had I been overlooked? Even though other things were equal including seniority and merit. Clearly it suggested gender bias," she added.
She agreed that in even in high-level government appointments there is a gender bias that remains.
Who’ll cut the red tape?
A report by the home ministry suggests Bedi was barred from the post because she is seen as 'anti-establishment' person-someone above the system who symbolizes the middle-class hero.
Responding to the charges Bedi said, "All I can say is that I have only worked as per the needs of the work. However is this judged, I do not know. But if Tihar needed reforms, I gave it. If traffic needed tough enforcement, I gave it. And in many situations I had my seniors with me."
Vehemently refuting claims that she stepped authority while making pertinent decisions and that she was not congruent with her seniors, Bedi said, "Nobody can say that I have done things all by myself. I have had some of the finest police commissioners with me who led the way."
The charge against Bedi is that she has not been involved in active policing. Reports from the bureaucracy suggest so.
"If that is the charge, then it's terribly wrong. I have done two traffic assignments-one during Asian games, and then commonwealth heads of governments in Goa. I have handled narcotics control bureau. I have done four-years of proactive police training. I trained seventy percent of the force, have done 16 different countries of the world in peace-keeping which meant totally reviving police systems in these broken down countries. What else do you want?"
"I handled Mizoram and by the time I finished my tenure of two-and-half-years of hard area posting, the insurgent groups signed surrender and put cessation of arms. How much more do can you expect?" she pointed out.
"I did the best with whatever I got. I did not choose my postings. I think what needs to be seen is what did I do with what I got," Bedi concluded.
Putting her foot down against gender discrimination, Bedi said, "I refuse to consider myself a victim."
"It's a strange coincidence that this has happened three times over. It happened in the Indian Administrative Service when a lady was in the race for the post of Cabinet Secretary. It's happened with the Indian Foreign Services officer Veena Sikri who was in the race for the post of foreign secretary. And now it has happened to me, an IPS officer. I am certainly not the only one. This has happened across the board. Three women who were making it in terms of seniority have all lost out," she said.
The police officer told CNN-IBN that it is in fact a norm that women officials in the civil services, despite ranking high in terms of merit and seniority are overlooked. The reasons are neither stated nor justified.
Battle of the sexes: Unfair on ‘fair sex’?
"I was the first one to bring this issue to the table and yet I did not receive a reply. I should be given an assignment that's appropriate to my seniority. If that does not happen, I have nothing else to conclude but that it's a gender bias," said Veena Sikri referring to the appointment of Shiv Shankar Menon over her as the foreign secretary.
She pointed out that women officials in the civil services are in fact very small in number-as less as just 15 per cent. "If even these few women are going to be overlooked for unspecified reasons-it is not the kind of message that a nation like ours that takes great pride in 'women empowerment'- should send across," she said.
Does authority and demeanor threaten men in positions of power? "Things are not fair in this country," said Krishnamurthy.
"Discrimination happens in places of recruitments due to various rules and regulations. The system is to be blamed. It clearly needs to be reviewed," he added.
A charge cited against Bedi is that she has been too much in the media and limelight. As a Delhi police commissioner, Bedi was perhaps not discreet enough. She was in fact seen too much 'outside' the system.
To this Bedi said that she is a "good communicator" and that is what attracted all the media attention and limelight. She said being in the 'media glare' should not be seen in a negative manner.
"Media is one of the tools to communicate. Though media I was communicating with the prisoners, with criminals, with people in need. If that positive communication is picked up by the media, what's wrong?" she said.
"If being a successful communicator, instead of being considered a great merit, is going to be considered a demerit, then that talks about the hypocrisy of the system. Today media management is becoming a part of the training module at the National Police Academy. Why do you think they are doing it?" she added.
Bedi too blamed the antiquated, backward looking system that restricts her from becoming Delhi's police chief. "All this time I continued to work through this same system. At times I suffered this system and made no complaints. I continued to deliver through this very same system. In every situation I had beaten the system, but this time around it's the system that has beat me out and has also defied the whole concept of fair play. The system has won and individuals have lost," she said.
"We have go to handle the cancer in the system because it is not throwing up independent, strong, honest, courageous leadership," she added.
Final Results: Did Kiran Bedi fail to become Delhi Police chief because she is a woman?
80 per cent said yes
20 per cent said no.
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