Kiran Bedi distinguished herself as a police officer after becoming the first woman IPS officer in the country. She then became a full-time politician who was projected as a chief ministerial candidate before the Delhi Assembly elections. Her appointment now as Lieutenant-Governor of Puducherry is bound to raise questions over whether the ruling party at the Centre would expect her to act as a sentinel over a Congress government rather than a ceremonial head of the Union Territory.
Also, since the functions of a Lt.-Gov. of a Union Territory or a quasi-state like Delhi are far more active administratively than in full states, such fears may not be unjustified. The tussles between Lt.-Gov. Najeeb Jung and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal have become a legendary side-show of hardcore Centre-state politics. It has also shown what powers a Lt.-Gov. wields as opposed to the governor of a state.
Kiran Bedi has said she would be “trustworthy in terms of governance”. To keep her word, she would have to be a very balanced representative of the Centre in India’s federal set-up. As an upright police officer, her dilemmas of balancing out situations of political interference may have been less challenging than keeping a hawk’s eye on an Opposition-ruled UT and weighing the bidding of her political masters.
A ceremonial posting may not be simple for someone who till recently was in the rough and tumble of electoral politics. Given her record as an officer who stood out for her ability to undertake tasks beyond the call of duty, she must also prompt the government to act against the increasing lawlessness creeping into the former French colony by the Bay of Bengal.
