First Ladies of India

It cannot get more ironical than this. India swears in her first woman President, Pratibha Patil. The same day, the first Indian woman to join the Indian Police Service in 1972, Kiran Bedi, is denied the post of Police Commissioner of Delhi.
The reason? A very lame excuse that she does not have enough active policing experience. Truth is that Kiran Bedi is a woman who is hard to pin down. A woman who has always acted with unrestrained zeal for action - for which she attracted both controversy and admiration in equal measure.
Everyone knows that she has been more "active" than any other police person. Can we forget that she earned the moniker Crane Bedi for towing away Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's illegally parked car during her tenure as chief of Traffic Police? That incident reflected her sense of duty and justice.
The Indian Police Service did not shape her. She came into the service like made like that - with steely determination, sinews made of iron, and passion running through her veins.
She proved this right at the beginning. Just two years into her assignment, Bedi was in riot-torn Old Delhi trying to rescue a large number of women trapped inside a burning building. When she ordered her constable to break open the door, he balked. Without wasting another moment, Bedi drenched herself with water from a nearby tap and kicked open the door, thus saving every woman inside. This was to become her trademark in every single operation hence. She would act without care for her personal safety. Her sense of duty governed everything she did.
She went on to consistently achieve more that what was expected of her. However, the most enduring images are of Bedi at India Gate during the Akali-Nirankari riots in 1977. The front page of a leading newspaper carried a series of shots of her amidst a large group of sword-wielding, turbaned Sikhs.
The first shot showed a Sikh attacking one of her constables with his sword. The rest of the shots showed her beating the daylights out of that man with her lathi while the others stood with their limp swords, too shocked to react. That's Kiran Bedi for you. Khushwant Singh was so right when he described her as the gutsiest woman he had ever met.
She went on to prove herself repeatedly. Whether it was in outsider-unfriendly Mizoram where she made insurgents surrender, or in reforming Asia's largest prison - Tihar Jail - or even as chief of the Narcotics Bureau, Kiran Bedi always left her mark.
Bedi may or may not become the Police Commissioner of Delhi. Either ways, she refuses to be called a 'victim'. To me, she is a hero beyond compare. Untouched by cynicism and guided by political correctness in everything she did.
Today, how am I to express my anger when I see her being discriminated against? Am I supposed to shut up and feel happy now that India has a woman President? A woman who until yesterday was a complete nobody, had no strong opinions, and added no great value during her career. When the UPA announced her candidature for post of the Honourable Rubber Stamp, the nation chorused: Pratibha who?!
Am I supposed to feel proud of the woman President who thinks that subjugation of Indian women began with the Mughal invaders? Not only does this show a very narrow view of history, it also reflects a deep-rooted prejudice against Muslims. The woman President, who pretends to decry the purdah system, wears a full-sleeved blouse and keeps her head covered under her pallu.
Perhaps she the best candidate to be a rubber stamp. She will continue to serve the UPA and Madam Sonia with silent devotion. It is sad that she is stepping in to the shoes of someone like Abdul Kalam - the people's President - who proved that the highest post in India can be the voice of the nation. UPA has successfully muted that voice. That is why I refuse to accept Pratibha Patil as my President. Maybe I will be vindicated when some day Kiran Bedi becomes our President.