Kiran Bedi suggests use of civil defence instead of riot police during student agitations

New Delhi: Former IPS officer Kiran Bedi on Thursday suggested that civil defence personnel could be the first line of defence to deal with student protests rather than the riot police, thereby avoiding direct confrontations and allegations against the police force.

The response comes days after the Delhi Police came under fire for unleashing “brutality” on student protestors during the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)-led ‘Sansad Chalo’ march on July 20.

In a self-made video posted on her official X account, Bedi said: “On the same line just as the Border Security Force (BSF) is deployed at the border and the soldier does not come in the first contact. The first contact on the borders is BSF. Similarly, the first contact in a students’ agitation should be the civil defence.”

While mentioning that this civil defence can have “cane sheets, body armour and helmets”, she underlined that the force will not carry sticks.

“The riot police can stand by and watch over to protect life and property in general and specifically of the civil defence,” she added.

Kiran Bedi also emphasised that the riot police must come in only if the civil defence line “is being run over or under threat”.

She also mentioned that the civil defence is available in every state.

“This means we can quickly mobilise, retrain and deploy them for student agitations. This way confrontations with the police force and allegations too can be avoided. A lot of time and energy can be saved,” Bedi said.

The former police officer concluded the video by saying “It is an idea worth consideration”.

In another post on X, Kiran Bedi noted that the civil defence and home guard members in every state are “recruited, young men and women on the pay rolls”.

Maintaining that if the civil defence becomes the first point of contact with student agitators, she said: “This will place the onus on the student demonstrators to not provoke the coming in of riot police. Armed police come in only for saving life and property and will need a justification.”

“The Civil Defence hence becomes the witness. This will avoid allegations and counter allegations,” Bedi reiterated.

IANS