Kiran Bedi (born 9 June 1949) is a former tennis player who became the first Indian woman to join the officer ranks of the Indian Police Service (IPS) in 1972 and was the 24th lieutenant governor of Puducherry from 28 May 2016 to 16 February 2021. She remained in service for 35 years before taking voluntary retirement in 2007 as Director General, Bureau of Police Research and Development.

As a teenager, Bedi was crowned the national junior tennis champion in 1966. Between 1965 and 1978, she won several titles at various national and state-level championships. After joining the IPS, Bedi served in Delhi, Goa, Chandigarh and Mizoram. She started her career as an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) in the Chanakyapuri area of Delhi, and won the President's Police Medal in 1979. Next, she moved to West Delhi, where she brought about a reduction in crimes against women. Subsequently, as a traffic police officer, she oversaw traffic arrangements for the 1982 Asian Games in Delhi and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 1983 in Goa. As Deputy Commissioner of Police of North Delhi, she launched a campaign against drug abuse, which evolved into the Navjyoti Delhi Police Foundation (renamed to Navjyoti India Foundation in 2007).

In May 1993, Bedi was posted to the Delhi Prisons as Inspector General (IG). She introduced several reforms at Tihar Jail, which won her the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1994. In 2003, Bedi became the first Indian and first woman to be appointed head of the United Nations Police and Police Advisor in the United Nations Department of Peace Operations. She resigned in 2007, to focus on social activism and writing. She runs the India Vision Foundation. During 2008–11, she hosted a court show Aap Ki Kachehri. She was one of the key leaders of the 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement, and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in January 2015. She unsuccessfully contested the 2015 Delhi Assembly election as the party's chief minister candidate.

Early life and education

Kiran Peshawaria was born on 9 June 1949 in Amritsar, Punjab, India, into a Punjabi business family. She is the second child of Prakash Lal Peshawaria and Prem Lata (born Janak Arora). Her great-great-grandfather Lala Hargobind had migrated from Peshawar to Amritsar, where he set up a business. Bedi's upbringing was not very religious, but she was brought up in both Hindu and Sikh traditions (her grandmother was a Sikh, although her other family members were Hindu). Prakash Lal helped with the family's textile business, and also played tennis.

Bedi's grandfather Muni Lal controlled the family business and gave an allowance to her father. He cut this allowance when Bedi's elder sister Shashi was enrolled in the Sacred Heart Convent School, Amritsar. Although the school was 16 km away from their home, Shashi's parents believed it offered a better education than other schools. Muni Lal was opposed to his grandchild being educated in a Christian school. However, Prakash Lal declared financial independence and enrolled all his daughters, including Kiran, in the same school. Bedi started her formal studies in 1954, at the Sacred Heart Convent School in Amritsar. She participated in National Cadet Corps (NCC), among other extra-curricular activities. At that time, Sacred Heart did not offer science; instead, it had a subject called "household", which was aimed at grooming girls into being good housewives.

When Bedi was in Class 9, she joined the Cambridge College, a private institute that offered science education and prepared her for the matriculation exam. By the time her former schoolmates at Sacred Heart cleared Class 9, she cleared the Class 10 (matriculation) exam. Bedi graduated in 1968, with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in English, from Government College for Women at Amritsar. The same year, she won the NCC Cadet Officer Award. In 1970, she obtained a master's degree in political science from Panjab University in Chandigarh.

From 1970 to 1972, Bedi taught as a lecturer at Khalsa College for Women in Amritsar. She taught courses related to political science. Later, during her career in the Indian Police Service, she also earned a Bachelors of Law degree from the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi in 1988 and a Doctorate of Philosophy from the Indian Institute of Technology - Delhi's Department of Humanities and Social Sciences in New Delhi in 1993. In 1964, she played her first tournament outside Amritsar, participating in the national junior lawn tennis championship at Delhi Gymkhana. She lost in early rounds, but came back to win the trophy two years later, in 1966. As the national champion, she was eligible for entry to the Wimbledon junior championship, but was not nominated by the Indian administration.

Between 1965 and 1978, Bedi won several tennis championships in India, including:

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! Title

! Year

! Place

! Notes / Source

|-

| Junior National Lawn Tennis Championship

| 1966

| Amritsar

| The pair won the championship three years in a row.

|-

| Northern India Lawn Tennis Championship

| 1970

| Chandigarh

|

|-

| Asian Lawn Tennis Championship

| 1972

| Pune

|

|-

| All-India Hard Court Tennis Championship

| 1974

|

|

|-

| Gold medal, National Sports Festival for Women

| 1976

| New Delhi

| With her sister Anu She continued playing tennis until the age of thirty, when she started focusing on her Indian Police Service career. In 1972, she married fellow tennis player Brij Bedi; the two had met on Service Club courts in Amritsar.

Indian Police Service Career

As a young woman, Bedi frequented the Service Club in Amritsar, where interaction with senior civil servants inspired her to take up a public service career. On 16 July 1972, Bedi started her police training at the National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie. She was the only woman in a batch of 80 men, and became the first woman IPS officer. After a 6-month foundation course, she underwent another 9 months of police training at Mount Abu in Rajasthan, and further training with Punjab Police in 1974. Based on a draw, she was allocated to the union territory cadre (now called AGMUT or Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram-Union Territories cadre).

First posting in Delhi

Bedi's first posting was to the Chandni Chowk subdivision of Delhi in 1975. The same year, she became the first woman to lead the all-male contingent of the Delhi Police at the Republic Day Parade in 1975. Her daughter Sukriti (later Saina) was born in September 1975.

Chandni Chowk was an affluent area that included the Parliament building, fish markets, and the residences of the Prime Minister and the President. The crimes in the area were mainly limited to minor thefts, but political demonstrations (which sometimes turned violent) were a regular occurrence. During the 1980s, there were many clashes between Nirankari and Akali Sikhs. On 3 December, a group of Nirankaris held a congregation near India Gate. A contingent of 700–800 Akalis organized a demonstration against them. DCP Bedi's platoon was deployed to stop the protesters and prevent violence. As the protesters resorted to brick-batting, Bedi charged them with a cane, although there was no tear gas squad to support her unit. One of the demonstrators ran towards her with a naked sword, but she charged him as well as other demonstrators with a cane. Ultimately, her unit was able to disperse the demonstrators. For this action, Bedi was awarded the President's Police Medal for Gallantry (1979), in October 1980.

In 1979, Bedi was posted to Delhi's West District, where there were not enough officers to handle the high volume of criminal activity. To compensate, she started recruiting civilian volunteers. Each village in the district was night patrolled by six civilians led by an armed policeman. She enabled anonymous reporting of any knowledge about crimes. She clamped down on bootlegging and the illicit liquor business to reduce crimes in the area. Bedi implemented an open door policy, which encouraged citizens to interact with her. She implemented a "beat box" system: a complaint box was installed in each ward, and the beat constables were instructed to have their lunch near this box at a set time each day. She regularly asked people if they knew about the beat constable assigned to their area, and also walked with the constables to raise their self-esteem. Within 3 months, there was a reduction in crimes. There was a drop in cases related to "eve teasing" (sexual harassment of women) and wife beating. This gained her the goodwill of local women, who also volunteered their services to help fight crime in the area. After the Asian Games were over, she was transferred to Goa for 3 years. According to contemporary rumours, Indira Gandhi's aides R. K. Dhawan and Yashpal Kapoor, as well as her yoga instructor Dhirendra Brahmachari (whom Bedi had personally fined for a wrongly parked car), played a role in her transfer. According to another theory, the loss of revenue resulting from her experiment of holding classes for traffic violators (instead of fining them) was a major factor in her transfer.

Her 7-year-old daughter suffered from nephritic syndrome since the age of 3, and was seriously ill at the time. Bedi requested the Home Ministry not to transfer her out of Delhi until her daughter's condition became stable. According to Bedi, she had put herself in a "very vulnerable situation", and the only people who could help her were the ones "who had been offended by my 'equal enforcement of law'". One of Bedi's officers arrested and handcuffed the man. When he was produced in the court, he was recognized as Rajesh Agnihotri, a lawyer practicing at the Tis Hazari Courts Complex. The man had given a different name when he was arrested, and his lawyer colleagues claimed that he had been falsely framed. This further enraged the lawyers. On 17 February, a mob of an estimated 600–1000 people led by the Congress corporator Rajesh Yadav arrived at Tis Hazari court. The mob was armed with brickbats, hockey sticks and small rods. It raised slogans in support of Bedi and Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. It stoned the lawyers' chambers and smashed the windscreens of their cars. The police force deployed in the area did not try to stop the mob violence, although some individual policemen tried to control the mob. Bedi denied any connivance in the incident. The police later arrested Rajesh Yadav, and charged him with rioting and conspiracy. The Congress distanced itself from Yadav and ousted him.

The members of the Delhi Bar Association were not satisfied with Bedi's transfer, and wanted her suspended. However, the Police Commissioner Ved Marwah refused to suspend Bedi. The scholarly legal commentary was divided, with some supporting Bedi, citing her "unblemished" service record.

As the protests turned violent, Bedi received threats that her house would be set on fire. Her superiors told her that they could no longer protect her. She left Aizawl after submitting her leave application. Her parents and daughter had already left for Delhi by this time. Lal Thanhawla accused her of insubordination.

Reforms at Tihar

Bedi decided to turn Tihar into a model prison. She introduced several reforms. She arranged separate barracks for the hardened criminals, who had been using their time in prison to recruit gang members, sell contraband and extort money. These prisoners unsuccessfully challenged Bedi in court for unfairly segregating them.

Removal from Tihar

Bedi's reform programme at Tihar received worldwide acclaim. But it also attracted envy from her superiors, who accused her of diluting prison security for personal glory. She was not on good terms with her immediate supervisor in the government, the minister for prisons Harsharan Singh Balli. Many members of Balli's party, the BJP, had not forgiven Bedi for her lathi charge on the party's assembly in the 1980s. However, until March 1995, Bedi was on good terms with BJP's Delhi Chief Minister Madan Lal Khurana. Khurana was a prisoner in Tihar during the Emergency, and appreciated her work for prisoners.

In 1994, Bedi was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award and the Nehru Fellowship. The Magsaysay Foundation recognized her leadership and innovations in crime control, drug rehabilitation, and humane prison reform. The US president Bill Clinton invited her to National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. When the Delhi Government refused to let her accept the invitation, Bedi lobbied with the Union Home Ministry to get the clearance. However, the Home Minister S.B. Chavan declined the permission. Clinton repeated the invitation in 1995, and this time, Bedi approached the media. The New York Times published a report stating that "several politicians and her superiors were feeling cut up with her assertive style and the success that followed her". Under pressure from the public and the media, Chavan allowed Bedi to attend the Breakfast. However, this episode won her several detractors in the government. PK Dave and Madan Lal Khurana got Bedi removed as the prisons in-charge on 3 May 1995. Bedi accused "unethical politicians" of "telling lies, making false allegations and misinforming people". She alleged that her supervisors in the government had no "interest, vision or leadership". She argued that she should not have been transferred on the basis of unverified charges, and demanded an inquiry committee. Rajesh Pilot defended her publicly, but the Union Government did not officially support her. Khushwant Singh described her transfer as "a victory for a handful of small-minded, envious people over a gutsy woman". In 2005, she returned to Delhi after her UN stint. The Delhi Bar Association lobbied to ensure that she didn't get a post that would put her on track to become Delhi's police chief. The lawyers, referring to the 1988 controversy, wrote to government authorities arguing that Bedi's appointment to a top post might "unnecessarily create a conflict between the legal fraternity and the police". She was made the director general, Home Guards. Before her retirement, she was serving as the director general of the Bureau of Police Research and Development.

In 2007, Bedi applied for the post of Delhi Police Commissioner. She was overlooked in favour of Yudhvir Singh Dadwal, who was junior to her, reportedly because the senior bureaucrats saw her as too "outspoken and radical". Bedi alleged bias, and stated that her merit had been overlooked. She also proceeded for a three-month 'protest leave', but canceled it later. Journalists like Karan Thapar and Pankaj Vohra criticized her for crying bias, and stated that her service record was tainted with controversies like incomplete Goa, Mizoram and Chandigarh assignments; the lawyers' strike controversy; and the removal from Tihar.

Bedi resigned from police service in November 2007, citing personal reasons. She stated that she wanted to focus on academic and social work.

Social activism

thumb|left|Bedi at Successful Women in Management (SWIM) Conference in 2009

thumb|Group of women in the Navjyoti India Foundation

The Navjyoti Delhi Police Foundation founded by Bedi and her colleagues was renamed to Navjyoti India Foundation in 2007. Over the next 25 years, it provided residential treatment to nearly 20,000 drug and alcohol addicts. It also started crime prevention programmes such as education of street children and slum kids. It established 200 single-teacher schools, vocational training centers, health care facilities and counselling centers for the vulnerable sections of society. In 2010, it also established the Navjyoti Community College, affiliated to IGNOU.

Bedi set up India Vision Foundation (IVF) in 1994. IVF works in fields of police reforms, prison reforms, women empowerment and rural and community development. In police reform area, Bedi emphasized better training, while opposing hazing of trainees. She opposed frequent transfers, stating that these lead to poor cadre management. She also proposed creation of a new level of police administration, which would protect rank-and-file officers from politicians and bureaucrats. In women's rights area, she has advocated equitable educational opportunities and property ownership (including co-ownership) for women. She has emphasized faster empowerment of rural women. In 2008, she launched the website to help people whose complaints are not accepted by the local police. As an activist for women's safety across the nation, Bedi heavily slammed former Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav for his comments of "Boys are boys, they make mistakes, why hand them for rape" during the 2014 General Elections.

thumb|Kiran Bedi with Anna Hazare.

Bedi was one of the speakers in Bhagavad Gita Summit (from 10–14 December 2021) during Gita Jayanti at Dallas, Texas, US along with other notable personalities such as Swami Mukundananda Ji, Dr. Menas Kafatos, Mr. Shiv Khera, Brahmacharini Gloria Arieira and others.

Anti-corruption movement

thumb|right|Kiran Bedi at Ramlila maidan for Jan Lokpal Bill.

In October 2010, Arvind Kejriwal invited Bedi to join him in exposing the CWG scam. Bedi accepted the invitation, and by 2011, the two had allied with other activists, including Anna Hazare, to form India Against Corruption (IAC) group. Their campaign evolved into the 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement. Anna Hazare planned an indefinite hunger strike to demand the passage of a stronger Jan Lokpal Bill in the Indian Parliament. On 16 August 2011, Bedi and other key members of IAC were detained by the police, four hours before the hunger strike could start. Bedi and other activists were released later on the same day. After twelve days of protests and many discussions between the government and the activists, the Parliament passed a resolution to consider three points in drafting of Lokpal bill.

Some members of parliament proposed to bring a breach of privilege motion against Bedi and other activists for allegedly mocking the parliamentarians during the Lokpal bill protests, however they withdrew these notices later.

During the anti-corruption movement, Bedi faced controversy when some newspapers questioned discrepancies in her past travel expenses between 2006 and 2011. In 2009, for example, Bedi was invited as the keynote speaker at a conference arranged by Aviation Industry Employees Guild. She accepted the invitation without a speaking fee, but her NGO was to be reimbursed for travel expenses. Bedi's travel agent Flywell, invoiced her hosts business class fare for air tickets, but arranged Bedi to travel in economy class. Between 2006 and 2011, there were several discrepancies in travel-related expense statements, as well as instances where she travelled at no cost to her hosts for a cause. In these cases, Bedi stated she did not personally receive or incur the disputed difference, only India Vision Foundation did, an NGO she headed. In November 2011, the Delhi Police, under directions of the additional chief metropolitan magistrate, registered an FIR – police case for cognizable offense – against Bedi for allegedly misappropriating funds through Indian Vision Foundation and other NGOs. The investigation that followed found no evidence of fraud against her or of siphoning of NGO funds for personal use, and subsequently filed closure of the case.

Politics

thumb|right|Bedi (right) at the launch of a book on [[Narendra Modi in March 2014]]

Bedi split from IAC after a faction led by Arvind Kejriwal formed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in 2012. AAP went on to form a short-lived minority government in Delhi with Kejriwal as chief minister. During the 2014 Indian general election, Bedi publicly supported Narendra Modi, the prime ministerial candidate of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Kejriwal, on the other hand, contested the election against Modi. After Modi won and became the prime minister of India, Bedi stated that she was ready to be BJP's CM candidate in Delhi, if such an offer was made to her. Eight months after Modi's election, she joined BJP in 2015. She was BJP's chief ministerial candidate for the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections, in which Arvind Kejriwal was AAP's CM candidate. She lost the election from Krishna Nagar constituency to AAP candidate SK Bagga by a margin of 2277 votes, and AAP came to power again with an absolute majority after one year.

Earlier, on 22 May 2016, Bedi was appointed as the lieutenant governor of Puducherry.

Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry

thumb|250px| Bedi as Lt. Governor of Puducherry

Bedi took oath as the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry on 29 May 2016, stating that she was aiming to make Puducherry prosperous through "trust, empowerment and accountability."

One of the first practices she initiated as the lieutenant governor was to open the gates of Raj Nivas - the official residence of the Governor - to the public, thereby making it the "People’s Nivas". She started an 'open house' process where the public could visit Raj Nivas from Monday to Wednesday at 17:00 to meet the lieutenant governor in person and have their grievances addressed. She undertook morning rounds on bicycle to inspect public amenities and interact with people.

thumb|250px|Bedi leading a cycle rally at [[Karaikal.]]

thumb|250px| Bedi with Sanitation Workers during a cleaning campaign at Puducherry

Raj Nivas dedicated "visitor hours" every day from 12:00 to 13:30, during which the general public was allowed to enter and see the French heritage building and to meet the lieutenant governor, and take a picture with her.

In 2017, Bedi received public complaints about corrupt practices in postgraduate medical college admissions process organized by the Centralized Admission Committee (CENTAC), a government body. She visited the CENTAC office, and directed the officials to revoke their decision of surrendering government-quota seats to the managements of private colleges. She also ordered them to ensure fairness and transparency in the process. Some private colleges had denied admissions to government-quota students stating that the fees prescribed by CENTAC was too low. Bedi directed the management of these colleges to admit the students, and asked them to take up the issue of low fees with the government.

Another project by Bedi has been ‘Mission Water Rich Puducherry’. When she heard that the PWD did not have enough funds to de-silt water channels and the drains, she brought in community support in the form of CSR, connected donors with JCB machine contractors, and had the channels de-silted in short notice. Today, this model is being emulated across the country. In 2019, as she celebrated her 70th birthday, she began 'Mission Green Puducherry' by planting saplings along the Kanagan lake in Puducherry. Since then, many students and volunteers have taken this forward by organizing tree planting drives.

thumb|200px| Bedi performing Yoga along with other participants, on the occasion of the 2nd [[International Day of Yoga – 2016, at Beach Road, Puducherry on June 21, 2016]]

At the 50th Governors Conference in Delhi, Bedi outlined several best practices that she introduced in Puducherry to ensure financial prudence, bring in community support, and grievance redressal through open house.

She removed as the lieutenant governor of Puducherry on 16 February 2021. The governor of Telangana, Tamilisai Soundararajan was given additional charge of the Union territory.

Author

thumb|250px| Kiran Bedi presents her book "Creating Leadership" to the prime minister, [[Narendra Modi, in New Delhi on January 13, 2016]]

Bedi has authored the following works:

  • Translated into Marathi as इट्स ऑलवेज पॉसिबल ()
  • Translated into Marathi by Leena Sohoni as व्हॉट वेंट रॉंग? ()
  • Translated into Marathi by Madhuri Shanbhag as अ‍ॅज आय सी… स्त्रियांचे सक्षमीकरण… ()
  • Translated into Marathi by Madhuri Shanbhag as ऍज आय सी… नेतृत्व आणि प्रशासन… ()
  • Translated into Marathi by Madhuri Shanbhag as अॅज आय सी… भारतीय पोलीस सेवा… ()
  • Translated into Hindi as कायदे के फायदे ()
  • Translated into Marathi as कायदे नेक फायदे अनेक ()
  • Translated into Gujarati as આવો આપણે સભ્યતા કેળવીએ ()
  • Translated into Hindi as निडर बनो ()
  • Kiran Bedi;(2016). Dr. Kiran Bedi : Creating Leadership.. Diamond Books Publications
  • Kiran Bedi (2016). Himmat Hai Kiran Bedi Diamond Books Publication.

Personal life

Kiran Bedi was born Kiran Peshawaria, daughter of Prakash Lal Peshawaria and his wife Prem Lata Peshawaria. She is one of four sisters. Indian-American lawyer Anu Peshawaria is Bedi's younger sister.

Kiran met her future husband Brij Bedi on the tennis courts of Amritsar. Brij, who was nine years older than her, played university-level tennis at the time. On 9 March 1972, the two were married at a simple ceremony at the local Shiva temple. The couple had a happy marriage initially, and Brij Bedi was extremely supportive of his wife's aspirations. In an interview given after she became the first woman to be accepted into the ultra-elite IPS, Kiran Bedi described her husband as "my personal God" and attributed her success to him. However, once she had become the first-ever IPS officer, Kiran Bedi's parents moved into the government house allotted to her and also brought along their two youngest (unmarried) daughters. Brij and Kiran had a daughter three years after the wedding, but after her birth, Brij Bedi's parents and siblings were hardly able to see the baby due to the total domination of Kiran's family in the household. Brij Bedi felt suffocated and relations with his live-in in-laws deteriorated. He moved out not long after the birth of his daughter and thereafter, the two lived separately for the rest of their lives. However, they never got divorced, and Brij Bedi has attributed that decision to the fact that they have a child together.

The couple had a daughter in 1975; originally named Sukriti, she later changed her name to Saina. Brij Bedi died on 31 January 2016.

Awards and recognitions

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! Year

! Award

! By

! For

! Source

|-

| 1968

| Cadet Officer Award

| National Cadet Corps

| Performance as an NCC cadet

|

|-

| 1994

| Ramon Magsaysay Award

| Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, Philippines

| Government service

|

|-

| 1995

| Lion of the Year

| Lions Club, KK Nagar

| Community service

|

|-

| 2001

| Morrison Tom Gitchoff Award

| Western Society of Criminology, United States

| Actions that have significantly improved the quality of justice in India

|

|-

| 2004

| United Nations Medal

| United Nations

| Outstanding service

|

|-

| 2005

| Mother Teresa Memorial National Award for Social Justice

| All India Christian Council

| Reforms in prison and penal systems

|

|-

| 2008

| Kumarappa-Reckless Award

| Indian Society of Criminology

| Outstanding contribution in the areas of criminal justice administration

|

|-

| 2013

| Nomura Award

| Nomura Group

| Humanitarian work

|

|-

| 2014

| L’Oreal Paris Femina Women Award

| L'Oréal and Femina

| Social impact

|

|}

In 2005, CUNY School of Law awarded her an honorary Doctor of Law degree in recognition of her "humanitarian approach to prison reforms and policing".

The Navjyoti Delhi Police Foundation received the 1999 Serge Sotiroff Memorial Award for outstanding contributions to international drug control efforts.

She was conferred with Acharya Tulsi Kartritva Puraskar in 2005 by Akhil Bhartiya Terapanth Mahila Mandal.

The following films, documentaries and TV programmes are based on Bedi's life:

  • Karthavyam (1990), is a Telugu film based on Bedi. It was dubbed into Tamil as Vyjayanthi IPS. The movie was remade in Hindi as Tejaswini.
  • Doing time, Doing Vipassana (1997), documents Bedi's initiatives for the practice of Vipassana meditation at Tihar
  • I Gandhis fotspor / In Gandhi's Footsteps: Kiran Bedi's Humanitarian Revolution (2004), a documentary by the Norwegian filmmaker Oystein Rakkenes. Awarded Best Documentary at the Indo-American Film Festival in Atlanta in 2006.
  • Kiran Bedi: Yes Madam, Sir (2008), a documentary produced by Australian filmmaker Megan Doneman. Narrated by Helen Mirren it was filmed over a six-year period and premiered in 2009. It was adjudged the "Best Documentary" at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
  • Kannadadda Kiran Bedi (2009) is a Kannada film, starring Malashri as a fictionalized interpretation of Bedi.
  • Koi To Ho Ardhnarishwar, a television series aired from 2010 on DD National. It was an adaptation of a novel by Vishnu Prabhakar, the novel in turn took its inspiration from Bedi's life.
  • Carve Your Destiny, a 2014 film directed by Anubhav Srivastava, features Bedi.

Biographies of Bedi include:

  • Translated into Sinhalese as
  • . A 32-page comic book biography authored by Kiran Bedi's sisters Reeta and Anu