Retired hurt: tough cop gives up on system

Kiran Bedi, the country’s first woman IPS officer, has sought voluntary retirement from service after 35 years in the force.
Magsaysay award-winner Bedi, who was recently overlooked for the post of Delhi’s Police Commissioner, has told the Government she wants to retire to pursue her “academic and social interests”.
Bedi, who retires as Director General, Bureau of Police Research and Development, has the reputation of being honest and no-nonsense officer. She earned the nickname ‘Crane Bedi’ in the 1980s when she once towed away Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s car for illegal parking.
Bedi has been civilian police adviser to the UN, Deputy Inspector General of Police in Mizoram, Director General in the Narcotics Control Bureau, head of Delhi traffic police and the chief of Delhi’s Tihar prison, where introduced reforms to improve the life of inmates.
Why is such a talented and honest officer seeking voluntary retirement? Does the Indian police have no place for an officer like her? CNN-IBN’s Senior Editor Sagarika Ghose asked this to Bedi herself and Meeran Chaddha Borwankar, the first woman Joint Commissioner of Mumbai Police and currently Special Inspector General of Police at the State Crime Record Bureau and CID in Pune. Ajay Mehra, Director of Centre for Public Affairs, joined the show to explain how the police system works in our country.

‘The system must change’
When Bedi was overlooked for the post of Delhi's police chief, she had told CNN-IBN: “the system has defeated me”. Is she retiring because of the system?
"That is true. I am today rejecting the system and moving out of it. I don't want to waste any more time with this stagnant system. I live and practise dynamism, so I am rejecting status quo. I want to move on and seek new challenges—I want to start all over again," she said.
“I am not disillusioned but fulfilled. Had I dragged on I would have felt disillusioned. If the system which brought out changes becomes status quo-ist, then it is time to move on and seek new pastures.”