KOLKATA: Kiran Bedi on Tuesday batted for Modi as the prime minister in between a lecture she delivered at a city hotel. “He (Modi) is tried and tested and he can take the country forward,” said the former IPS officer at a time when there are talks of BJP projecting her as its chief ministerial candidate in Delhi.

“I have read a lot about leadership and understand leadership and the language of leadership. He (Modi) will make a good leader,” she said.

At an interactive session on ‘Mandating Women Security’ organised by MCCI and MCCI Ladies Forum, Bedi deduced how a six-P formula could bring about the much-needed revolution in the country to make it a more livable place for women. The six Ps stand for parents, panchayats and principals, politicians, police, prosecution, prisons and press. She added the seventh P — personal protection — on the audience’s demand.

The first P sought accountability from parents, panchayats and school principals, who must prevent school dropouts who tend to commit all sorts of crime against women. The second would ask politicians to lead awareness campaigns against such crime. The third was police response, which is often lacking. The fourth P, prosecution, would seek more budgetary allocation to set up fast-track courts for such trials. The fifth related to prisons, which would seek the sensitization of criminals before they are released. And finally, the positive role that must be played by the media.

The seven-P formula, said Bedi, would be presented to the new government as a demand from the civil society, which will seek that the wish-list be implemented along with considerable increase in funds allocated for women’s safety.

Bedi said: “The reforms for protection of women should be very much a priority of the new government because the Opposition parties, which carry on the plank of change, have vouched for better policy on women security and police reforms.”

