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We can expect governance from the BJP: Kiran Bedi
Social activist Anna Hazare's key aide Kiran Bedi says that the people of Delhi are disillusioned by the Aam Aadmi Party, and that she herself would go with her inner ‘nod’ and not invitation or a go ahead from others to contest elections.
Bedi spoke to rediff.com's Upasna Pandey
How do you rate the performance of the 49 days of the AAP government in Delhi?
They themselves say they were in a hurry. The AAP leadership adopted a most confrontational and hostile approach towards everything and everybody as they needed to move on to campaigning for the General Elections. All their decisions were impulsive and for increasing vote banks.
This approach in fact has divided Delhi for the first time on class lines. It clearly isolated institutions such as the Delhi police and others. They displayed no skills not the intention to work around with the system, they wanted only its exposure and to punish and gain media engagement all the time.
Delhi will go for fresh polls in the next six months. How do you view this scenario? Do you see things to be any different next time around with the promise of the AAP returning with a majority?
Six months is both long and short for such politics! If Delhi remains in a confrontational and impulsive mode, then we are heading for massive disturbance in the peace quotient of the city.
There is mass anxiety about it. Anywhere one goes, the question being asked is, how long? And when will Delhi settle down; clearly people are feeling disillusioned.
Hazare has been critical of former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on the way he quit from Delhi. He (Hazare) has now also promised support to West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee as ‘the most suitable prime ministerial candidate of India’. Do you agree with him?
Anna is an institution by himself and has his very personal views on certain matters. It is best therefore to respect his views and keep yours.
What is your view on the role of the third front in the upcoming elections?
The voters today have an option of choosing one of the two national parties, the BJP, and to reject the Congress which has caused many scams. We can expect governance from the BJP since its being led by an experienced and tested leadership. We as voters will decide what we truly want. Currently, it is time to move on towards solutions and not to look for scapegoats.
Good governance and sound leadership will make corruption difficult and also with Lokpal Act, in which there is now an independence of the Central Bureau of Investigation, punishment of guilty is possible.
I don’t think that the coming together of several parties under the banner of the third front can provide the much-needed political stability; it can only result in poor governance, no progress and decline in all indices.
There are reports that Hazare has given a nod for you to contest elections. Please share your plan ahead and the role you would play during the elections, in case you choose not to contest.
I don't seek others’ 'nod,' I go by my own inner 'nod'. I don’t know politics! I know public service, and so I willingly remained a cop for 35 years. I wish to remain who I am.
As a former associate of Kejriwal, do you and other members of the Jan Lokpal movement feel that he has become larger than the movement and perhaps Hazare himself? Some believe that Kejriwal has hijacked the movement for political gains. Your view?
The last fast of July 2012, which he and his team undertook was not with Anna’s prior approval and the rest of the team. It was thrust upon us and the end game was pre-decided. They had said in one of their meetings that if Anna did not support them they would go without him. Anna joined them for the sake of unity of the movement, without knowing what was in store. That is the reason he dissolved the group immediately after.
How do you think issues such as corruption, law and order, safety of women, apart from economic growth fare in an election which is witnessing strong undercurrents of communal polarisation across party lines?
Those who are interested in vote bank politics would only talk about issues such as communal polarisation. The country is not interested in this. We are looking for development and prosperity and those who do this will save the country and work for India first.