Kiran Bedi’s ’incognito’ night ride in Puducherry: Twitterati asks for helmet

Mangalore Today News Network

Aug 21, 2017: From time immemorial, rulers travelled incognito around their kingdoms to see how their subjects were faring. It looks like former Top Cop and Lt. Governor of Puducherry, Kiran Bedi, decided to emulate rulers of yore when, on the 17th of August , she hopped onto a scooty as a pillion rider and went around the city centre of the tiny Union Territory in the night, to see how safe the city was for women.

With her face partially covered by a duppatta, she was filmed zipping around the city assessing the vulnerable areas. Soon after the nocturnal jaunt, she tweeted that by and large, the city was safe for women at night but she was surprised that there wasn’t a single cop on the streets.  Soon after, a video clip showing her travelling incognito went viral.

For her trouble, by and large Ms Bedi was warmly praised on social media but some critical and eagle-eyed fans of the former IPS officer noted that the driver of the scooty and Ms. Bedi were not wearing  helmets. To this, Ms. Bedi said it had been a “careful choice” as she wanted to appear as vulnerable as possible and said she “... wanted to see how (we) women driving a scooty at night are looked at.”

Like Tamil Nadu,  Puducherry did not enforce helmets for pillion riders for years but this year, Chief Minister V Narayanasamy had announced that helmets even for pillion riders would be made mandatory from 1 May. This change of heart was due to the fact that two-wheelers accounted for 46 per cent of the total road accidents in the Union Territory and in the previous year, 60 people who had not use helmets while riding two-wheelers were killed in mishaps.

In a strange twist to this problem, the Opposition AIADMK said that wearing of helmets by two-wheeler riders within town centre should be scrapped as this has lead to a spate of chain-snatching incidents where helmet-wearing miscreants had attacked many women, snatched their valuables and sped away. Police and victims were having a tough time identifying these petty criminals.  The legislature wing leader of AIADMK (Amma) A Anbalagan suggested that, “Helmet wearing should be compulsory only for the vehicle riders on highways and arterial roads.” He said that Puducherry as such is a very small place and efforts should be made to decongest the roads instead.

With death tolls due to motor accidents rising, it therefore seemed strange to the public that a formidable law enforcer like Ms. Bedi should ride around town without protective head-gear, setting a bad example for everyone, however she chose to justify it.