title: Let's Dance (David Bowie album)

text: The murder of John Lennon in December 1980 affected Bowie deeply; he cancelled an upcoming "Scary Monsters" tour and withdrew to his home in Switzerland, becoming a recluse but continued working. In July 1981, he collaborated with Giorgio Moroder for "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)", the title song of the Paul Schrader film "Cat People" (1982), and in the same session, recorded "Under Pressure" with the rock band Queen. Shortly after, he played the title role in a BBC adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's play "Baal", directed by Alan Clarke. Recorded in August 1981 and transmitted in March 1982, Bowie also recorded an accompanying soundtrack EP, released through RCA in February to coincide with the transmission. During the year, Bowie filmed appearances in "The Hunger" and "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence", both released in 1983. During filming for the latter, he grew fond of artists from the 1950s and 1960s, including James Brown, Buddy Guy, Elmore James and Albert King. The musical ideals from these artists would greatly influence the new album.


title: Let's Dance (David Bowie album)

text: "Scary Monsters" was Bowie's final studio album for RCA Records, his label since "Hunky Dory" (1971). Having grown increasingly dissatisfied with the label, who he felt was "milking" his back catalogue, he was also eager for the September 1982 expiration of his 1975 severance settlement with his old manager Tony Defries. Although RCA was willing to re-sign, alongside Columbia and Geffen Records, Bowie signed a new contract with EMI America Records for an estimated $17 million.


title: Let's Dance (David Bowie album)

text: With a new label and an idea for a commercial sound, Bowie wanted to begin fresh with a new producer. He chose Nile Rodgers of the R&B band Chic, one of the most commercially successful bands of the late 1970s, with hits such as "Le Freak" (1978) and "Good Times" (1979). According to biographer Nicholas Pegg, contemporary listeners considered Rodgers' writing and production work, including Sister Sledge's "We Are Family" (1979) and Diana Ross's "Upside Down" (1980), to be "dance classics". Bowie and Rodgers met each other at the Continental in New York City in autumn 1982, where they found they had similar influences in old blues and R&B music. Speaking to "Musician" in 1983, Rodgers said: "David could have had any producer – white or black – he wanted. He could have gone with Quincy Jones and a more sure-fire chance at a hit. But he called me up, and for that I feel honoured."


title: Let's Dance (David Bowie album)

text: Tony Visconti, the producer of Bowie's last four studio albums, was originally scheduled to produce the new album and set time aside to record. However, Bowie neglected to inform Visconti that he chose Rodgers for the project, the producer eventually learning through Bowie's assistant Coco Schwab closer to December 1982. Deeply hurt, the move damaged the two men's relationship and Visconti did not work with Bowie on a studio album again for nearly 20 years (until 2002's "Heathen").


title: Let's Dance (David Bowie album)

text: Bowie and Rodgers regrouped at the latter's home in Montreux, Switzerland, to begin demo work. The producer, who was expecting to make "Scary Monsters 2", was surprised to learn Bowie had a different idea, saying "'Nile, I really want you to make hits.' And I was sort of taken aback, because I'd always assumed that David Bowie did art first, and then if it happened to become a hit, so be it!" The producer was initially disappointed he would not be able to use the record as a way to earn respect from white audiences, but knew he would do what he did best in order to guarantee a hit. Bowie played his new songs on a twelve-string acoustic guitar, starting with "Let's Dance" in a soft vocal arrangement. Rodgers knew it was not a dance song, but took old '50s and '60s records to arrange the track into the finished product. Over three days, the two demoed the new tracks, with assistance from the Turkish multi-instrumentalist Erdal Kızılçay, who would later become a frequent collaborator of Bowie's.


title: Let's Dance (David Bowie album)

text: "Let's Dance" was recorded at the Power Station in New York City (where Bowie had also recorded "Scary Monsters") during the first three weeks of December 1982, and was completed in 17 days. The engineer for the sessions was Bob Clearmountain. Rodgers felt that the record's sound was aided by the ambience of the studio: "The Power Station is famous for its great drum sound. And we had great players too." Along with a new producer, an entirely new set of musicians were hired for the record, with Bowie stating: "I wanted to have a little relief from the guys that I usually work with. I wanted to try people that I'd never worked with before, so that I couldn't predict how they were going to play." Long-time collaborator Carlos Alomar, who had worked with Bowie since the mid-1970s and would continue to work with Bowie into the mid-1990s, was originally scheduled to contribute, but claimed he was offered an "embarrassing" fee and declined. In 1984, Alomar clarified he did not play on "Let's Dance" because he was only given two weeks' notice and was already booked with other work.


title: Let's Dance (David Bowie album)

text: With Alomar gone, Rodgers took his place on rhythm guitar. The producer also recruited his regular Chic collaborators: keyboardist Robert Sabino, percussionist Sammy Figueroa and backing vocalists Frank and George Simms. The remaining musicians included drummer Omar Hakim (whom Bowie called "a fascinating drummer with impeccable timing"); bassist Carmine Rojas; trumpeter Mac Gollehon; and saxophonists Stan Harrison, Robert Aaron and Steve Elson. Near the end of the sessions, Rodgers hired Chic drummer Tony Thompson and bassist Bernard Edwards for additional work; he was reluctant to hire them earlier due to their past drug use. Due to their arrival time, Thompson and Edwards' contributions were limited, appearing on only three tracks and one track, respectively. Edwards recorded his part for "Without You" in 13 minutes, with Rodgers later writing in his memoir, "I was never more proud of him in my life and it happened on the last day of basic recording." For the first time ever, Bowie himself played no instruments on the album, stating at the time: "I don't play a damned thing. This was a singer's album." He recorded all of his vocals in two days.


title: Let's Dance (David Bowie album)

text: At the 1982 Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, Bowie saw Stevie Ray Vaughan play guitar. At the time, Vaughan was an unknown 28-year-old blues guitarist from Texas; his debut album with his band Double Trouble was still unreleased. After Vaughan's performance, Bowie was so impressed that he tracked him down months later to get him to play lead guitar on the album. Rodgers was initially unimpressed with Vaughan, believing he sounded like American blues guitarist Albert King. Bowie however felt Vaughan was different, saying "he's got a whole other thing going on." Vaughan recorded his guitar overdubs towards the end of the sessions. According to author Paul Trynka, he used an old Fender Stratocaster plugged into an old Fender amplifier, "all the tone coming from the player". In a contemporary interview, Vaughan described the recording sessions: "Bowie is real easy to work with. He knows what he's doing in the studio and he doesn't mess around... He'd give his opinion on the stuff he liked and the stuff that needed work. Almost everything was cut in one or two takes. I think there was only one thing that needed three takes." According to Vaughan's biographers Joe Patoski and Bill Crawford, Vaughan played on six of the album's eight songs. In the biography "Strange Fascination", Buckley found Vaughan to be a "bizarre" choice for lead guitarist, as at the time, he was "about as far away from Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew as you could get". Bowie and Rodgers praised Vaughan's work on the album, with the latter becoming one of Vaughan's closest friends after the sessions.


title: Let's Dance (David Bowie album)

text: After the sessions concluded, Bowie went on holiday in Mexico, where he filmed a cameo appearance for the Mel Damski film "Yellowbeard" (1983). Afterwards, he returned to New York to finish post-production work and close his deal with EMI America at the end of January 1983. Upon closure, Bowie delivered "Let's Dance" to the label and departed for Australia to film music videos for the first two singles.


title: Let's Dance (David Bowie album)

text: Commentators characterise the songs on "Let's Dance" as post-disco, dance, dance-rock, new wave and dance-pop. "Consequence of Sound" calls the record "the sound in favour of pure disco, dance, and funk with Bowie coming down to earth" and that Bowie built upon the post-punk and new wave sound of its predecessor. Author James E. Perone notes the blues-edge inflicted by Vaughan, praising his contributions on "Modern Love", "China Girl" and "Without You". In an interview with "Details" magazine in 1991, Bowie described the album as "a rediscovery of white-English-ex-art-school-student-meets-black-American-funk, a refocusing of "Young Americans" (1975)". Artist Tanja Stark sees the commercial tempo of the album masking the lyrical continuity of Bowie's ongoing narratives of spiritual struggle and death anxieties.


title: Let's Dance (David Bowie album)

text: The opening track, "Modern Love", is an uptempo pop song that features a call-and-response structure inspired by Little Richard. AllMusic's Dave Thompson calls it "[a] high-energy, effervescent rocker" that "epitomises all that was good about Bowie's 1983 reinvention as a willing superstar". Pegg praises the music but calls the lyrics "superficial" compared to Bowie's previous work, as does Perone, who comments "some of the lyrics are clearer than others". O'Leary compares the lyrics to a flowchart, moving from "modern love" to "church on time" to "God and man".


title: Let's Dance (David Bowie album)

text: "China Girl" was written by Bowie and Iggy Pop in 1976, first appearing on Pop's 1977 debut solo album "The Idiot", which Bowie himself co-wrote and produced. Buckley calls Bowie's version an "ultra-cool reading" of Pop's original. For his version, Bowie added backing vocals while Rodgers composed the guitar riff. O'Leary writes that Bowie's vocal is more "playful" than Pop's, with the music itself exhibiting "Asian" qualities. BBC Online reviewer David Quantick acknowledged the effect of Rodgers' production on the song, arguing that "nobody but Rodgers could have taken a song like 'China Girl', with its paranoid references to 'visions of swastikas', and turned it into a sweet, romantic hit single". Pegg calls Bowie's rendition "a tremendously effective slice of hardcore pop", commenting that the lyrics reflect the album's overarching themes of "cultural identity" and "desperate love".


title: Let's Dance (David Bowie album)

text: Pegg considers the title track to be one of Bowie's finest 1980s recordings and one of the "all-time great pop songs." It was described by Ed Power in the "Irish Examiner" as "a decent chunk of funk-rock"; Perone finds that it represents the contemporary dance craze of the 1980s. It opens with a group of singers getting louder and louder before it explodes into a massive climax. O'Leary and Pegg compare the intro to the Beatles' version of "Twist and Shout" (1963). The seven-minute album version features different instrumental solos than the shorter single version. The lyrics instruct the listener to "put on your red shoes" and dance under the "serious moonlight".


title: Let's Dance (David Bowie album)

text: "Without You" harkens back to Bowie's 1960s recordings, reflecting 1960s-style pop. Pegg considers it a "throwaway love song" and the album's low point, disregarding both the music and lyrics. O'Leary similarly criticises Bowie's vocal performance, done in a "fragile falsetto". On the other hand, Ken Tucker of "Rolling Stone" wrote that "Without You" featured some of the most daring songwriting of Bowie's career and complimented his vocal performance.


title: Let's Dance (David Bowie album)

text: Biographers found "Ricochet" the only track reminiscent of the experimental nature of Bowie's late-1970s recordings. Perone finds it out of place with the rest of the album and suggests the artist was entering an artistic low point. Pegg writes that it has an R&B and swing-style repetitive backing vocal. Describing the track in 1987, Bowie stated: "I thought it was a great song, and the beat wasn't quite right. It didn't roll the way it should have, the syncopation was wrong. It had an ungainly gait; it should have flowed. ... Nile did his own thing to it, but it wasn't quite what I'd had in mind when I wrote the thing." "Criminal World" was originally written and recorded by Metro in 1977, but their version was banned by the BBC for its bisexual undertones. O'Leary states that Bowie included it on "Let's Dance" as a way to "sneak a transgressive song onto a platinum record". Pegg writes that Bowie updated its sound to match "Let's Dance", featuring a new wave and pop reggae groove, and calls Vaughan's guitar solo his finest on the record. Both Buckley and O'Leary praise Bowie's rendition as a strong cover.


title: Let's Dance (David Bowie album)

text: "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)" was recorded in 1981 by Bowie and Giorgio Moroder as the theme song for the 1982 film "Cat People". Bowie was unhappy with the original version and asked Rodgers to remake it for "Let's Dance". O'Leary describes the remake as "more aggressive". He praises Vaughan's guitar solo as superior to the original, but criticises Bowie's vocals as inferior. Pegg also considers the "Let's Dance" version to be inferior and laments that the remake became the better known version. The album ends with "Shake It", which Pegg calls "a likable enough piece of fluff". O'Leary describes the track as a summary of Bowie's "bad habits" of the 1980s: "an indifference to quality". Biographer Marc Spitz writes that its sound is a precursor to U2's 1993 song "Lemon".


title: Let's Dance (David Bowie album)

text: After delivering the album to the label, Bowie travelled to Australia in February 1983 to film the music videos for the first two singles, "Let's Dance" and "China Girl". He directed the video for "Let's Dance" with David Mallet, the director of Bowie's "Lodger" and "Ashes to Ashes" videos. The video has nothing to do with the song itself, except for a brief glimpse of red shoes. It follows a young Aborigine couple doing various activities that seduce them to the commercialism of white urban Australia. Bowie appears and sings the lyrics into the camera. The video is an allegory meant to represent the treatment of Aborigine people by white Australian capitalists. The video for "China Girl", again directed by Mallet, is similar in its theme of clashing perspectives, juxtaposing Sydney executives against the city's Chinese population. It features New Zealand actress Geeling Ng who recreates the famous beach scene from "From Here to Eternity" (1953) with Bowie. Buckley says that the provocative allegories and scenes of the videos guaranteed heavy rotation on MTV.


title: Let's Dance (David Bowie album)

text: "Let's Dance" was released through EMI America in edited form as the lead single on 14 March 1983, with the remake of "Cat People" as the B-side. Three days later, Bowie held a press conference in London where he announced the new album, also titled "Let's Dance", the new label and the upcoming tour. He donned a new look, featuring bleached blonde hair and a white suit. A few days later, the "Let's Dance" video premiered on the UK rock show "The Tube", along with interviews by Jools Holland. By the following week, "Let's Dance" entered the UK Singles Chart at number five, before peaking at number one for three weeks, and remaining on the chart for 14 weeks. It further peaked at number one on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 in April, becoming Bowie's biggest charting single to date. According to Buckley, the single was played "endlessly" on UK radio stations.


title: Let's Dance (David Bowie album)

text: EMI America issued "Let's Dance" on 14 April 1983, with the catalogue number AML 3029. Its cover artwork, depicting Bowie shadow-boxing against a city skyline, was taken by photographer Greg Gorman. "China Girl" was released, again in edited form, as the album's second single in May, with "Shake It" as the B-side. Although it failed to replicate the success of the title track, it still peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart in June, held off the top spot by the Police's "Every Breath You Take". In the US, it peaked at number ten on the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: Let's Dance (David Bowie album)

text: "Modern Love" was released, again in edited form, as the album's third single in September 1983. The B-side was a live version, recorded in Montreal on 13 July. Like "China Girl", "Modern Love" peaked at number two in the UK, held off the top spot by Culture Club's "Karma Chameleon". In the US, it charted at number 14. It was supported by a music video, directed by Jim Yukich, depicting a performance of the song in Philadelphia on 20 July. "Without You" appeared as the fourth and final single in November, backed by "Criminal World", released only in Holland, Japan, Spain and the US, where it reached number 73.


title: Let's Dance (David Bowie album)

text: Upon release, "Let's Dance" entered the UK Albums Chart at number one and stayed there for three weeks. Although "Aladdin Sane", "Pin Ups" (both 1973) and "Diamond Dogs" (1974) were at the top position longer, "Let's Dance" remained on the chart for over a year. The album peaked at number four on the US "Billboard" Top LPs & Tape chart on 24 June 1983, and remained on the chart for 69 weeks. EMI declared "Let's Dance" to be their fastest-selling record since the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (1967). Bowie's old label RCA issued a collection of Bowie's back catalogue as a way to cash in on its success. All of Bowie's albums he released between 1969 and 1974: "Space Oddity", "The Man Who Sold the World", "Hunky Dory", "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars", "Aladdin Sane", "Pin Ups" and "Diamond Dogs", as well as "Low" and ""Heroes"" (both 1977), all began to chart again. By July, Bowie had ten albums in the UK top 100. This feat made Bowie the artist with the second highest number of individual album-weeks of all time – with 198, behind the rock band Dire Straits, who achieved 217 individual album-weeks in 1986.


title: Let's Dance (David Bowie album)

text: Despite the album's major commercial success, it received mixed reviews from music critics, with opinions varying on the artistic content. In "Musician" magazine, David Fricke called it "Bowie at his best". In a piece on Bowie for "Time" in July 1983, Jay Cocks described the album as "unabashedly commercial, melodically alliterative and lyrically smart at the same time". Robert Christgau felt that it had a "perfunctory professional surface", and that other than the "interesting" "Modern Love", "Let's Dance" was "pleasantly pointless". While Steve Bush of "Smash Hits" found it overall dull, Debra Rae Cohen of "The New York Times" deemed it Bowie's "most artless" record yet, but one whose familiar dance music is "almost timeless in its appeal". Tucker felt "Let's Dance" sounded great, with an intelligent simplicity and a "surface beauty", but that as a whole it was "thin and niggling", other than "Modern Love," "Without You" and "Shake It", which offered "some of the most daring songwriting of Bowie's career".


title: Let's Dance (David Bowie album)

text: Several critics commented on the music. Writing for "Record" magazine, Carol Cooper called the album "the "Young Americans" of the '80s" and enjoyed Rodgers' involvement, writing that his presence allows Bowie to shine through. However, she felt all the tracks were "rather modest". More positively, "NME"s Charles Shaar Murray gave unanimous praise to the album, calling it "some of the strongest, simplest and least complicated music that Bowie has ever made." Further describing it as "warm, strong, inspiring and useful," he approved of Vaughan's contributions, saying he gives the songs a more "traditional" feel. John Walker of "Trouser Press" hailed it as a record that "simply bleaches the competition", one that represents "the closest Bowie has come to capturing pure energy". Offering further praise, "Billboard" deemed it "Bowie's most accessible music in years", "Cash Box" hailed it as his "most danceable album to date", and "Commonweal" called it "some of the most exciting R&B-based dance music in years." "NME" later placed "Let's Dance" at number 13 in its end-of-the-year list.


title: Let's Dance (David Bowie album)

text: To support "Let's Dance", Bowie embarked on his first concert tour in five years, the Serious Moonlight Tour, which ran from 18 May to 8 December 1983. Taking its title from a lyric in the title track, rehearsals began in the spring of 1983, with Alomar back as bandleader. The majority of the "Let's Dance" musicians returned, with the exception of Vaughan, who was present for rehearsals but let go by Bowie just days before the European leg was scheduled to begin. His dismissal was attributed to his alcohol and drug use, his request that his band Double Trouble be the supporting act, which Bowie denied, and his alleged displeasure to Bowie miming his guitar solo in the "Let's Dance" video. Vaughan's replacement was Diamond Dogs Tour (1974) and "Station to Station" (1976) guitarist Earl Slick.


title: Let's Dance (David Bowie album)

text: The tour's set pieces were created by the Diamond Dogs Tour artist Mark Ravitz. The set, Bowie's most elaborate yet, featured structures such as large columns, overhanging lintels and a giant right hand pointed upwards. Compared to prior tours, Serious Moonlight emphasised lights rather than props. Alomar later told Buckley that it was his favourite Bowie tour, mainly because "it was the first tour where we did all the hits". Discussing the setlist, Pegg states it was "unashamedly a greatest hits package aimed at acquainting the new mass audience with Bowie's back catalogue". Buckley describes the setlist as "relatively mainstream pop-rock", with none of the "quirks" of the late '70s tours. Many of the arrangements were redone with horns to make every song sound fresh.


title: Let's Dance (David Bowie album)

text: Serious Moonlight was a massive success: it became the biggest tour of 1983, appeased Bowie's newfound audience and, along with "Let's Dance", turned Bowie into a massive superstar. The tour was mostly well-received, although British reviewers tended to be more aggressive than American ones. An accompanying film documenting two shows performed on 11 and 12 September 1983 in Vancouver was released in 1984 as "Serious Moonlight". Although immensely successful, Bowie later called the tour a mixed blessing: "I was something I never wanted to be. I was a well-accepted artist. I had started appealing to people who bought Phil Collins albums.[...] I suddenly didn't know my audience and worse, I didn't care about them." Following the tour's conclusion, Bowie found himself in a creative stalemate. Pressure from the label to release a follow-up led him into the studio in the spring of 1984 unprepared. The resulting album, "Tonight", is considered one of his creative low-points.


title: Let's Dance (David Bowie album)

text: "Let's Dance" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year at the 26th Annual Grammy Awards in 1984 but lost to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" (1982). Although Bowie had charged Rodgers with making hits for him, Bowie later said in 1997: "At the time, "Let's Dance" was not mainstream. It was virtually a new kind of hybrid, using blues-rock guitar against a dance format. There wasn't anything else that really quite sounded like that at the time. So, it only seems commercial in hindsight because it sold so many [copies]. It was great in its way, but it put me in a real corner in that it fucked with my integrity." Two years earlier, he stated he intended for it to be a one-off project only: "I had every intention of continuing to do some unusual material after that. But the success of that record really forced me, in a way, to continue the beast. It was my own doing, of course, but I felt, after a few years, that I had gotten stuck." Visconti stated in 1985 that "it was an album he had to make".


title: Let's Dance (David Bowie album)

text: The album's success caused Bowie to hit a creative low point in his career lasting the next few years. By 1987, Bowie began to distance himself from the record, telling one interviewer that it was "more Nile's album than mine", to which Rodgers disagreed in 1998. After his follow-up albums "Tonight" and "Never Let Me Down" (1987) were critically dismissed,—Bowie would later dismiss this period as his "Phil Collins years"—he formed the rock band Tin Machine in an effort to regain his artistic vision.


title: Let's Dance (David Bowie album)

text: In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine felt that the album's three hit singles were catchy yet distinctive pop songs, while the rest of the album was "unremarkable plastic soul" indicative of Bowie "entering a songwriting slump". Power wrote that Bowie "pleaded shamelessly for the love of the mass market" with the album. He continued "... the title track was a decent chunk of funk-rock and Bowie did not embarrass himself on the single 'China Girl'. Otherwise, the record had a great deal in common with Wham! and Phil Collins." Quantick praised the combination of Bowie and Rodgers as "perfect" on the title track, the "sweet, romantic" rendition of "China Girl" and highlighted "Criminal World". He stated ""Let's Dance" may have had a ground-breaking sound and a popularity that Bowie clearly ached for, but it's often a mundane album, as songs like 'Ricochet' and 'Shake It' mark time". He said the album was "literally the template for 80s Bowie – blonde, suited and smiling". Writing in 1995 for the "Spin Alternative Record Guide", Rob Sheffield sees the album as exemplifying the influence of the New Romantic movement on Bowie. While lauding "Modern Love", he describes the album's other songs as "dodgier" but "good fun".


title: Let's Dance (David Bowie album)

text: In 2014, Andy Greene of "Rolling Stone" described "Let's Dance" as "the conclusion of arguably the greatest 14-year run in rock history". Writing for "The Guardian" the same year, Jeremy Allen stated that the album had "spent time in the wilderness, rejected by many because of its 80s production values", but he added that "a reappraisal was all but inevitable and has coincided with a renaissance in Rodgers' career and an outpouring of love for the unprecedentedly successful producer/guitarist." The chief rock and pop critic of "The Guardian", Alexis Petridis, said in his retrospective review of Bowie's career in 2016 that "Let's Dance" "had its moments", unlike "Tonight".


title: Let's Dance (David Bowie album)

text: Reflecting on "Let's Dance", Pegg agrees with Bowie in that the record was the artist's "least challenging" album up to that point. He felt that unlike Bowie's Glass Spider Tour and Tin Machine periods, where Bowie was willing to take risks and face criticism head-on, "Let's Dance" plays it safe in every aspect, creating tunes that originally contained "rough edges" that were then "sanded down" and given a "high-gloss finish". Pegg also notes that the appearance of three covers on the record was evident to Bowie hitting a creative slump. Spitz on the other hand, considers "Let's Dance" to be "as revolutionary" as "Ziggy Stardust", "Station to Station" or "Low". He finds it unfair to call it Bowie's "sellout record", saying it is "every bit as high concept as his canonised seventies efforts". Although he finds the record's first four tracks among the strongest of Bowie's entire career, Perone describes "Let's Dance" as a "double-edged sword", in that it was commercially successful but artistically, it found Bowie exploring more conventional lyrical themes and accessible music that would hinder his next recordings.


title: Let's Dance (David Bowie album)

text: On the album's influence, "Billboard" Joe Lynch argued that "Let's Dance" provided "the template" for alternative dance music "for the next 30 years". In 1989, the album was ranked number 83 on "Rolling Stone"s list of the "100 Best Albums of the Eighties". In 2013, "NME" ranked "Let's Dance" at number 296 in its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 2018, "Pitchfork" ranked the album at number 127 in their list of "The 200 Best Albums of the 1980s"; Jeremy D. Larson wrote that "Let's Dance" "sounds anything but dated" and felt it "became a Trojan horse for the world to discover all the many Bowies hiding underneath the blond bouffant and designer suits."


title: Let's Dance (David Bowie album)

text: In 1995, Virgin Records rereleased the album on CD with "Under Pressure" as a bonus track. EMI did the second rerelease in 1999 (featuring 24-bit digitally remastered sound and no bonus tracks), followed by another in 2003 as a hybrid stereo SACD/PCM CD.


title: Let's Dance (David Bowie album)

text: In 2018, "Let's Dance" was remastered for the "Loving the Alien (1983–1988)" box set released by Parlophone. It was released in CD, vinyl and digital formats, as part of this compilation and then separately the following year.


title: IWI Tavor

text: The IWI Tavor TAR-21 is an Israeli bullpup assault rifle chambered in 5.56×45mm NATO caliber with a selective fire system, selecting between semi-automatic mode and full automatic fire mode. The Tavor is designed and produced by Israel Weapon Industries (IWI). It is produced in two main variants: the TAR-21 and the CTAR-21.


title: IWI Tavor

text: Built around a long-stroke piston system (as found in the M1 Garand and AK-47), the Tavor is designed to maximize reliability, durability, simplicity of design, and ease of maintenance, particularly under adverse or battlefield conditions.


title: IWI Tavor

text: In 2009, the Tavor X95 (also known as the Micro Tavor or MTAR) was selected by the Israeli Defense Forces to gradually replace the M16 assault rifle and M4 carbine variants as the standard-issued weapon of the Israeli infantry by the end of 2018. The first X95 bullpup rifles were issued to infantry units in 2013. Both the TAR-21 and X95 are part of the Tavor family of rifles, along with the Tavor 7.


title: IWI Tavor

text: In the beginning of September 2021, there were conflicting reports in Israeli media whether the IDF was planning to end further acquisition of the Tavor and Micro and replace it with M4s for front-line units. On 7 September, a report was published on the IDF's Hebrew website that the IDF plans to continue acquiring the Micro Tavor and equipping combat units with it.


title: IWI Tavor

text: Israel Military Industries (the small arms branch of IMI was privatized into Israel Weapon Industries) initiated the Tavor development team in 1995, under the direction of gun designer Zalmen Shebs.


title: IWI Tavor

text: The objective of the project was to create an assault rifle that was more reliable, durable, and easier to maintain than the M4A1 carbine, while also being better suited to close-quarters combat and mechanized infantry roles. As a result, they hoped that the weapon would be officially adopted by the Israel Defense Forces.


title: IWI Tavor

text: Due to the military's close-quarters and mechanized infantry requirements, the project team selected a bullpup design that would allow the weapon to be compact while keeping a long barrel able to achieve ballistically favorable high muzzle velocities. A long-stroke piston system, similar to that found in the AK-47 and M1 Garand, was selected to ensure the weapon's reliability under adverse conditions.


title: IWI Tavor

text: The Tavor prevailed over the M4A1 in a series of trials conducted during 2001 and 2002. Qualities tested included Mean Rounds Between Failures (MRBF), reliability, ergonomics during long marches, and ease-of-maintenance.


title: IWI Tavor

text: As part of initial testing by Israel Defense Forces' infantry units, the TAR-21 was distributed to members of the training company of the Tzabar Battalion from the Givati Brigade who were drafted in August 2001. They received their rifles in November 2001 during basic training. Initial testing results were favorable – the TAR-21 was found to be significantly more accurate and reliable (as well as more comfortable) than the M4 during extensive field testing.


title: IWI Tavor

text: Issues with fine sand entering the Tavor's chamber, which were identified over the two years of testing, were rectified by numerous small adjustments. A number of other improvements and changes to the design were also made between 2001 and 2009. The Tavor CTAR-21 saw combat service in Operation Cast Lead, used by Givati Brigade and Golani Brigade, and the soldiers reported the Tavor bullpup assault rifles functioned flawlessly.


title: IWI Tavor

text: In November 2009, the IDF announced that the X95 would become the standard infantry weapon of the IDF, with the addition of an integrated grenade launcher.


title: IWI Tavor

text: A gradual changeover has begun in 2006 and expected completion among front line troops was to be by the end of 2018.


title: IWI Tavor

text: In December 2012, the IDF announced that they would begin equipping and training their new reserve forces with the X95, starting in 2013, with the switch-over by the end of 2018.


title: IWI Tavor

text: The first Tavor X95s were issued to new recruits of a main IDF infantry brigade in 2013, replacing the M16.


title: IWI Tavor

text: In 2014 the IDF announced that in the future (from as early as the end of 2014) some infantry units could start to be issued some numbers of an improved X95, which will have a longer barrel (instead of the original 33 cm barrel) and a lighter trigger pull.


title: IWI Tavor

text: On 5 September 2021, it was reported by the "Israel Hayom" newspaper's website that Israeli front-line infantry units have begun replacing their Tavor and Micro Tavor Rifles with M4s and that the Tavor rifles in existing inventory will be transitioned to reserve brigades. However, on 8 September, the "IsraelDefense" website reported that the IDF plans to continue acquiring the Micro Tavor, quoting from a report posted on the IDF's Hebrew website on 7 September regarding a multi-year plan. The rifle is to be distributed to combat troops of relevant units in upcoming rounds of recruitment. The weapons division of the Ground Forces Command was quoted as saying that it's "very satisfied by its capabilities... the rifle performs very well and has proven itself."


title: IWI Tavor

text: The Tavor uses a bullpup configuration, in which the receiver, bolt carrier group and magazine are placed behind the pistol grip. This shortens the firearm's overall length without sacrificing barrel length. As a result, the Tavor provides carbine overall length, yet can achieve rifle muzzle velocities if equipped with a rifle-length barrel.


title: IWI Tavor

text: The Tavor uses a non-lubricated long-stroke piston system, as found in the M1 Garand, IMI Galil, and the AK-47. Like in the AK-47, the long-stroke piston mechanism contributes to the extreme forcefulness of the TAR-21's extraction and chambering. The Tavor's attachment of the piston to a heavy bolt carrier, and the extension of the mainspring into the hollow stem of the bolt carrier, bears a family resemblance to the internal mechanism of the AK-47.


title: IWI Tavor

text: The Tavor has ejection ports on both sides of the rifle so it can easily be reconfigured for right or left-handed shooters. However, this process requires partial disassembly, so it cannot be quickly reconfigured while the rifle is in use. An issue related to this is the original plastic cover on the unused ejection can allow gas to escape during the course of fire. Due to the bullpup design, this vents right under the shooter's face, causing issues such as inhaling ejection gases and the fouling of glasses and face with ejection debris. The issue is exacerbated when the weapon is suppressed. The characteristic black smudge from this has been nicknamed "Tavor face" by some shooters. This has been addressed by various non-factory solutions which increase sealing of the unused port.


title: IWI Tavor

text: Its ambidextrous fire mode selector above the pistol grip has a semi-automatic mode and a fully automatic mode.


title: IWI Tavor

text: The Tavor features a self-contained, drop-in trigger group so that the trigger group can be changed or replaced without the use of additional tools.


title: IWI Tavor

text: The Tavor is primarily chambered in 5.56×45mm NATO, although 9×19mm Parabellum and 5.45×39mm Russian models are also available.


title: IWI Tavor

text: The IDF uses both M193 and M855 5.56×45mm rounds. M193 rounds are used by regular infantrymen for better terminal effects at shorter distances, while the heavier M855 is used by sharpshooters.


title: IWI Tavor

text: The Tavor features a last round bolt catch, whereby the bolt holds open after the last round discharges. This is a request of modern armies, as it helps to allow soldiers to know when their magazine empties and to reduce reloading times during combat while also not requiring manual action cycling after.


title: IWI Tavor

text: Tavor barrels are made from CrMoV steel and cold-hammer-forged (CHF) on the premises of the IWI factory in Ramat HaSharon. The TAR-21 barrel is 18 inches (457 mm) in length and is chrome-lined for durability and corrosion resistance. The barrel features 6 grooves in a 1 in 7 inch (178 mm) twist, or 32 calibers right hand twist rate.


title: IWI Tavor

text: The barrel is fitted with a 'birdcage' style flash suppressor, which can be fully disassembled without the need for additional tools.


title: IWI Tavor

text: The design objectives of the Tavor aimed for reliability and ease-of-maintenance, particularly under adverse or battlefield conditions. According to Russell C. Tilstra, the Tavor is "easily considered more reliable" than the M16 and M4 series rifles.


title: IWI Tavor

text: It is waterproofed and its internal mechanism is sealed from outside elements, so that it can pass over-the-beach requirements.


title: IWI Tavor

text: The Israeli firearm manufacturer, Israel Weapon Industries produces the Tavor TAR-21 in different variations:


title: IWI Tavor

text: The CTAR-21 is a compact shorter 380 mm (15 in) barrel variant intended for commandos and special forces, but has become more favored than the standard TAR-21 throughout the IDF.


title: IWI Tavor

text: The STAR-21 is a designated marksman variant with folding under-barrel bipod and Trijicon ACOG 4× magnification sight


title: IWI Tavor

text: The Tavor X95 (also referred to as the MTAR-21) is the variant of the Tavor that was selected as the future standard infantry weapon of the IDF in 2009. In 2013, the X95 was issued for the first time as the standard infantry weapon to recruits of the Givati Brigade.


title: IWI Tavor

text: With the use of a relatively simple conversion kit, the X95 can be converted from a 5.56 mm assault rifle to a 9 mm submachine gun. A suppressor can also be added to the weapon, as part of the 9 mm conversion kit. A grenade launcher can also be attached to the X95.


title: IWI Tavor

text: The IWI Tavor 7 is the latest iteration of the Tavor. It is chambered in 7.62×51 mm NATO. It is a fully ambidextrous rifle.


title: IWI Tavor

text: Ukraine purchased a license for Tavors to be manufactured by Ukrainian firearm manufacturer RPC Fort. As of March 2021, Fort is no longer marketing them.


title: IWI Tavor

text: The semi-automatic Tavor Carbine (TC-21) was first made available for civilian customers to purchase in from 2008. The Canadian civilian version initially shipped with the Mepro reflex sight and a slightly longer barrel to meet the Canadian requirement for non-restricted semi-automatic centerfire rifles to have a barrel length of at least 470 mm. Current versions are shipped with a full-length Picatinny rail, without optics. In Europe, the Czech company Zeleny Sport recently (December 2015) imported Israeli-made TC-21s, equipped with Mepro M5 or M21 reflex sight, which are now available for both civilian and law enforcement customers.


title: IWI Tavor

text: In 2013, IWI started a US subsidiary, IWI US, which is manufacturing the semi-automatic TC-21 as the Tavor SAR for U.S. sales. The weapon is manufactured with a combination of Israeli and US parts. IWI US had shipped 50,000 Tavor SARs to US civilian customers by early 2016.


title: IWI Tavor

text: Note: IWI US sells their Tavor SARs in a variety of colors, including Black (B), Flat Dark Earth (FD), and OD Green (G); the letter "B" subsequent to "TS" in the rifles' designations can be switched with any of the colors' respective letters.


title: IWI Tavor

text: A significant aftermarket of spare and replacement parts has developed around the Tavor, including the development of match grade accurizing triggers for the bullpup rifle that are produced by manufacturers such as Geissele Automatics and double stage trigger pack TAV-D from Shooting Sight.


title: IWI Tavor

text: Shlomi Sabag, Deputy CEO of IWI, says that one of the indicators of the success of the rifle in the shooting sports or civilian market is the fact that "an aftermarket of products associated with the Tavor bullpup rifle, like triggers, has evolved very quickly".


title: IWI Tavor

text: The Truth About Guns website awarded the Tavor with TTAG Reader's Choice Award for Best Rifle of 2013.


title: IWI Tavor

text: The National Rifle Association's "American Rifleman" awarded the Tavor the 2014 Golden Bullseye Award as its rifle of the year. The NRA's prestigious award, now in its twelfth year, aims to award the best products available to civilian shooters.


title: Battle of Los Angeles

text: The Battle of Los Angeles, also known as the Great Los Angeles Air Raid, is the name given by contemporary sources to a rumored attack on the continental United States by Imperial Japan and the subsequent anti-aircraft artillery barrage which took place from late 24 February to early 25 February 1942, over Los Angeles, California. The incident occurred less than three months after the U.S. entered World War II in response to the Imperial Japanese Navy's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, and one day after the bombardment of Ellwood near Santa Barbara on 23 February. Initially, the target of the aerial barrage was thought to be an attacking force from Japan, but speaking at a press conference shortly afterward, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox called the purported attack a "false alarm". Newspapers of the time published a number of reports and speculations of a cover-up to conceal an actual invasion by enemy airplanes.


title: Battle of Los Angeles

text: When documenting the incident in 1949, the United States Coast Artillery Association identified a meteorological balloon sent aloft at 1:00 am as having "started all the shooting" and concluded that "once the firing started, imagination created all kinds of targets in the sky and everyone joined in". In 1983, the U.S. Office of Air Force History attributed the event to a case of "war nerves" triggered by a lost weather balloon and exacerbated by stray flares and shell bursts from adjoining batteries.


title: Battle of Los Angeles

text: In the months following the Imperial Japanese Navy's attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, and the United States' entry into World War II the next day, public outrage and paranoia intensified across the country and especially on the West Coast, where fears of a Japanese attack on or invasion of the U.S. continent were acknowledged as realistic possibilities. In Juneau, Alaska, residents were told to cover their windows for a nightly blackout after rumors spread that Japanese submarines were lurking along the southeast Alaskan coast. Rumors that a Japanese aircraft carrier was cruising off the coast of the San Francisco Bay Area resulted in the city of Oakland closing its schools and issuing a blackout; civil defense sirens mounted on patrol cars from the Oakland Police Department blared through the city, and radio silence was ordered. The city of Seattle also imposed a blackout of all buildings and vehicles, and owners who left the lights on in their buildings had their businesses smashed by a mob of 2,000 residents. The rumors were taken so seriously that 500 United States Army troops moved into the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank, California, to defend the famed Hollywood facility and nearby factories against enemy sabotage or air attacks.


title: Battle of Los Angeles

text: As the U.S. began mobilizing for the war, anti-aircraft guns were installed, bunkers were built, and air raid precautions were drilled into the populace all over the country. Contributing to the paranoia was the fact that many American merchant ships were indeed attacked by Japanese submarines in waters off the West Coast, especially from the last half of December 1941 through February 1942: (escaped), (damaged), (escaped), (sank), (damaged), SS "H.M. Storey" (escaped, sank later), (sank), SS "Camden" (sank), (damaged), (sank), (sank), (escaped), SS "Connecticut" (damaged), and SS "Idaho" (minor damage). As the hysteria continued to mount, on 23 February 1942, at 7:15 pm, during one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's fireside chats, surfaced near Santa Barbara, California, and shelled Ellwood Oil field in Goleta. Although damage was minimal (only $500 in property damage (equivalent to $ in ) and no injuries) the attack had a profound effect on the public imagination, as West Coast residents came to believe that the Japanese could storm their beaches at any moment. (Less than four months later, Japanese forces bombed Dutch Harbor in Unalaska, Alaska, and landed troops in the Aleutian Islands of Kiska and Attu).


title: Battle of Los Angeles

text: On 24 February 1942, the Office of Naval Intelligence issued a warning that an attack on mainland California could be expected within the next ten hours. That evening, many flares and blinking lights were reported from the vicinity of defense plants. An alert was called at 7:18 pm, and was lifted at 10:23 pm. Renewed activity began early in the morning of 25 February. Air raid sirens sounded at 2:25 am throughout Los Angeles County. A total blackout was ordered and thousands of air raid wardens were summoned to their positions. At 3:16 am, the 37th Coast Artillery Brigade began firing .50-caliber machine guns and anti-aircraft shells into the air at reported aircraft; over 1,400 shells were eventually fired. Pilots of the 4th Interceptor Command were alerted but their aircraft remained grounded. The artillery fire continued sporadically until 4:14 am. The "all clear" was sounded and the blackout order was lifted at 7:21 am.


title: Battle of Los Angeles

text: Several buildings and vehicles were damaged by shell fragments, and five civilians died as an indirect result of the anti-aircraft fire: three were killed in car accidents in the ensuing chaos and two of heart attacks attributed to the stress of the hour-long action. The incident was front-page news along the West Coast and across the nation.


title: Battle of Los Angeles

text: Within hours of the end of the air raid, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox held a press conference, saying the entire incident had been a false alarm due to anxiety and "war nerves". Knox's comments were followed by statements from the Army the next day that reflected General George C. Marshall's supposition that the incident might have been caused by enemy agents using commercial airplanes in a psychological warfare campaign to generate mass panic.


title: Battle of Los Angeles

text: Some contemporary press outlets suspected a cover-up of the truth. An editorial in the "Long Beach Independent" wrote, "There is a mysterious reticence about the whole affair and it appears that some form of censorship is trying to halt discussion on the matter." Speculation was rampant as to invading airplanes and their bases. Theories included a secret base in northern Mexico as well as Japanese submarines stationed offshore with the capability of carrying planes. Others speculated that the incident was either staged or exaggerated to give coastal defense industries an excuse to move further inland.


title: Battle of Los Angeles

text: Representative Leland M. Ford of Santa Monica called for a Congressional investigation, saying "none of the explanations so far offered removed the episode from the category of 'complete mystification' ... this was either a practice raid, or a raid to throw a scare into 2,000,000 people, or a mistaken identity raid, or a raid to lay a political foundation to take away Southern California's war industries."


title: Battle of Los Angeles

text: After the war ended in 1945, the Japanese government declared that they had flown no airplanes over Los Angeles during the war. In 1983, the U.S. Office of Air Force History concluded that an analysis of the evidence points to meteorological balloons as the cause of the initial alarm:


title: Battle of Los Angeles

text: A photo published in the "Los Angeles Times" on February 26, 1942, has been featured in UFO conspiracy theories as evidence of an extraterrestrial visitation. They assert that the photo clearly shows searchlights focused on an alien spaceship; however, the photo was heavily modified by photo retouching prior to publication, a routine practice in graphic arts of the time intended to improve contrast in black and white photos. "Times" writer Larry Harnisch noted that the retouched photo along with faked newspaper headlines were presented as true historical material in trailers for the 2011 film "". Harnisch commented, "[I]f the publicity campaign wanted to establish UFO research as nothing but lies and fakery, it couldn't have done a better job."


title: Battle of Los Angeles

text: Every February, the Fort MacArthur Museum, located at the entrance to Los Angeles Harbor, hosts an entertainment event called "The Great LA Air Raid of 1942".


title: Kiran Bedi

text: Kiran Bedi (born 9 June 1949) is an Indian social activist, former-tennis player who became the first woman in India 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.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: 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).


title: Kiran Bedi

text: 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 Ministerial candidate.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: Kiran Peshawaria was born on 9 June 1949 in Amritsar, East Punjab, Dominion of India, into a Punjabi business family. She is the second child of Prakash Lal Peshawaria and Prem Lata (born Janak Arora). She has three sisters: Shashi, Reeta, and Anu. 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 she was in Class 9, Bedi joined Cambridge College, a private institute that offered science education and prepared her for 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 Social Sciences in New Delhi in 1993.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: Inspired by her father, Bedi started playing tennis at the age of nine. As a teenage tennis player, she cut her hair short as it interfered with her game. 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.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: Bedi was also a part of Indian team that beat Sri Lanka to win the Lionel Fonseka Memorial Trophy in Colombo. 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.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: 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).


title: Kiran Bedi

text: Bedi's first posting was to the Chanakyapuri 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.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: Chanakyapuri was an affluent area that included the Parliament building, foreign embassies, 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 1970s, there were many clashes between Nirankari and Akali Sikhs. On 15 November 1978, 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.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: 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.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: In October 1981, Bedi was made DCP (Traffic). The preparation for the 1982 Asian Games had caused traffic snarls in the city. The construction of 19 sports stadiums and several flyovers had resulted in a number of blockades and diversions. Bedi encouraged coordination between the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, Delhi Electric Supply Undertaking and Delhi Development Authority. She clamped down on errant motorists with a heavy hand. She replaced challans (traffic tickets) with spot fines. Her team towed improperly parked vehicles using six tow trucks ("cranes") for traffic control. This earned her the nickname "Crane Bedi". On 5 August 1982, an Ambassador car (DHI 1817) belonging to Prime Minister Office was towed away by sub-inspector Nirmal Singh, as it was wrongly parked outside the Yusufzai Market at Connaught Place. Singh was fully supported by Bedi and her superior Ashok Tandon.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: To raise funds for traffic guidance materials, Bedi presented Asian Games traffic management plan to a group of sponsors. The sponsors committed to providing road safety and other educational material worth 35,00,000. She also bought traffic police jeeps for her officers; for the first time, four wheelers were allocated to inspectors in the traffic unit. After the Asian Games were over, she was given "Asian Jyoti" award for excellence. She refused to accept the award for herself alone, and recommended that it be given to entire traffic unit.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: Bedi did not spare errant motorists from the rich and influential section of the society, which resulted in a powerful lobby against her. Her victims included the Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation and her own sister-in-law. 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.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: 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 to 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'". Her request was not entertained, and she had to leave behind her daughter, who was too ill to accompany her.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: Bedi arrived in Goa in March 1983, on a three-year assignment. A few months after her arrival, the Zuari Bridge was completed but not opened to public; the state government wanted Indira Gandhi to come from Delhi and inaugurate it formally. However, they were not able to secure confirmation from Indira Gandhi for several days. The public had to use ferries to transfer their vehicles across the Zuari River. One day, during a patrol, Bedi noticed that there was a huge mass at the ferry boarding point. She drove to the bridge, removed the blockades and diverted the traffic waiting at ferry to the bridge. This unofficial inauguration angered many politicians. In November 1983, Goa hosted the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet (CHOGM). Bedi involved NCC cadets in Goa for traffic regulation along the VIP routes.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: Shortly after the CHOGM ended, her daughter's medical condition worsened. Bedi applied for leave, so that she could go to Delhi and take care of her daughter. Until this point, she had not taken privilege leave in her decade-long career, and her leaves had always lapsed. Inspector General of Police (IGP) Rajendra Mohan recommended her leave application, but the leave was not officially sanctioned by the Goa government. Bedi left for Delhi anyway, since she had enough leaves in her account. Her daughter was hospitalised at AIIMS for one week. After her daughter was discharged from hospital, Bedi decided to stay in Delhi until her recovery. Bedi sent a personal letter to the IGP, as well as a detailed explanation to the Goa government, with medical reports and certificates. However, in a statement to United News of India (UNI), the Goa Chief Minister Pratapsingh Rane declared her absconding and absent without leave. After seeing Bedi's daughter's condition in Delhi, UNI published a rebuttal to the Chief Minister's statement. This made Goa government even more hostile to Bedi.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: After being declared absent without sanctioned leave, Bedi was not given any assignment for six months. When her daughter's condition became stable, she met the Union Home Secretary T. N. Chaturvedi, who reinstated her. She was assigned to the Railway Protection Force in New Delhi, as a Deputy Commandant. Six months later, after appealing to a senior official in Prime Minister's Office, she was reassigned to the Department of Industrial Development, as a deputy director. There, she worked under the Directorate General of Industrial Contingency (DGIC), as a strike mediator between labor and management. Bedi left DGIC in October 1985, and shortly after her departure, the organization was wound up as part of an economy drive.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: In 1985, Police Commissioner Ved Marwah made a special request for Bedi to be assigned to the police headquarters. There, Bedi cleared several pending files and sanctioned 1,600 promotions in a single day to motivate the staff.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: In 1986, Bedi became DCP of Delhi's North District, where the primary problem was rampant drug abuse. At that time, Delhi had only one centre for treatment of drug addicts – "Ashiana", which was run by the New Delhi Municipal Corporation. With help from her superiors, Bedi set up a detox center in one of the police premises. The center relied on community donations of furniture, blankets, medicines and other supplies. It also received voluntary services from doctors and yoga teachers. Within a year, five more detox centers were set up. Each center was intended to serve up to 30 patients, but at one time, each center catered to around 100 patients. The initiative was widely noticed, and Bedi travelled all over India, giving presentations and lectures on the programme. Before she was transferred to a new post, she and 15 other police officers institutionalized the detox centers as Navjyoti Police Foundation for Correction, De-addiction and Rehabilitation. Bedi served as the General Secretary of the Foundation.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: In the 1980s, Bedi attracted ire of Delhi politicians and lawyers. First, she ordered lathi charge on a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) assembly in Red Fort area, and arrested its leaders. A few months later, she arrested Congress(I) MP J.P. Agarwal for violating curfew orders.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: In January 1988, the Delhi Police caught a man stealing from a girl's purse at St. Stephen's College. A few weeks later, he was arrested again for trespassing into a women's toilet and writing obscene graffiti inside. 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. The protesters also argued that lawyers must not be handcuffed even if there are proper grounds for their arrest. Bedi vociferously defended her officer's action. The lawyers organized a strike and led a procession to DCP (North) office. Not finding DCP Bedi at the office, the lawyers manhandled Additional DCP Sandhu. This led to a scuffle between the cops and the lawyers. The lawyers escalated their strike, and several politicians supported the lawyers in demanding suspension of Bedi.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: On 21 January, the police lathi-charged the striking lawyers in Tis Hazari complex. 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.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: For the next two months, the lawyers stopped courts from functioning in Delhi and neighbouring states, demanding Bedi's resignation. The strike was called off after the Delhi High Court constituted a two-judge committee to investigate the matter. Known as Wadhwa Commission, the committee consisted of Justice DP Wadhwa and Justice NN Goswamy. KK Venugopal, the lawyers' counsel, produced evidence that on 17 February, all police stations in the zone knew that a 2000-strong mob was heading towards Tis Hazari Courts Complex, where the lawyers were on a hunger strike. Despite this, no police force was deputed to protect them. In its interim report, the Commission expressed concern over police lapses. The judges said that they wanted to investigate the matter further, and recommended transfer of five police officers (including Bedi) out of North Delhi, during the investigation period. Even before the report was made public, in April 1988, the Union Government transferred Bedi to the post of deputy director (Operations) in the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), also in Delhi. Two days later, the four other officers mentioned in the report were also transferred.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: 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 commission's final report, released in April 1990, censured all the parties. The report stated that the arrest of Rajesh Agnihotri was justified, but his handcuffing was illegal. It also concluded that an "indiscriminate and unjustified" lathi-charge on the lawyers was ordered by Bedi, and that she had connived with the municipal councillor to organize the mob attack on the lawyers. The scholarly legal commentary was divided, with some supporting Bedi, citing her "unblemished" service record.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: After Bedi was censured by the Wadhwa Commission, it was decided to transfer her out of Delhi. She wanted a challenging posting in either Andamans, Arunachal Pradesh or Mizoram. She hoped that this would lead to her reassignment to Delhi Police after a few years (after "hard" postings, government servants are unofficially entitled to a post they desire). She requested Joint Secretary (Union Territories) to transfer her to Mizoram, a remote border state in North-East India. When she didn't get any firm response, she wrote to the home secretary Naresh Kumar. Along with Bedi's batchmate Pardeep Singh, Naresh Kumar convinced the Joint Secretary to transfer her to Mizoram. They pointed out that officers who were given Mizoram posting refused to go there, while Bedi was volunteering to go there. Bedi reported to the Mizoram Government in Aizawl on 27 April 1990. Her designation was Deputy Inspector General (Range). Her parents and her daughter also moved to Mizoram.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: Consumption of alcohol, especially home-brewed rice liquor "Zu", was very common in Mizoram. Several of Bedi's officers were alcoholics. At first, she didn't stop them since "Zu" was a part of Mizo culture, and she didn't want to be seen as someone who interfered with the local culture. Later, she opened an indoor de-addiction facility for alcoholic policemen. The major crime in the district was heroin smuggling across the Burmese border. A number of teenagers were drug addicts, with proxyvon and heroin being the most common drugs. Most of the repeat criminal offenders were alcoholic. Since Mizoram was a Christian-majority state, Bedi utilized Christian prayers to reduce drug and alcohol-induced criminal behavior. She declared Saturdays "prayer and rehabilitation day" at district police stations, despite protests from the Superintendent of Police, who was an atheist. Every Saturday, past criminals would be brought to the police station to pray and learn and to receive treatment for alcoholism.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: While in Mizoram, she completed a major part of her Ph.D. research. (Later, in September 1993, she was awarded a doctorate by IIT Delhi's Department of Social Sciences, for her thesis on Drug Abuse and Domestic Violence.) During her stay in Mizoram, she also started writing her autobiography.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: In September 1992, her daughter Sukriti applied for a seat in Lady Hardinge Medical College (Delhi), under a quota for Mizoram residents. Students of Mizoram launched a violent agitation against the allocation, on the grounds that she was a non-Mizo. Sukriti had topped the merit list with 89% marks, and was given seat from the Central pool, according to the government guidelines. Mizoram's Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla asked her to surrender the seat in "the larger interests of the state", although he accepted that "there was nothing illegal in her daughter getting the seat". Bedi refused to surrender the seat, saying that her daughter deserved the seat.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: 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.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: After leaving her Mizoram assignment incomplete in September 1992, Bedi had to wait eight months for a new posting. In May 1993, she was posted to the Delhi Prisons as inspector general (IG). The Tihar Jail of Delhi was built as a four-jail complex with a capacity of 2,500 prisoners. However, by the time Bedi became its in-charge, its prisoner population varied from 8,000 to 9,500. About 90% of its inmates were undertrials, who had been accused of non-bailable offences. Some of them had been waiting for years to get a trial in a badly clogged court system. The prison had a budget of 15 crore, which was just enough to pay for basic expenditure, leaving little for welfare programmes. Tihar was notorious as a violent and unmanageable place, and no officer wanted to be posted there. The post had been lying vacant for nine months, before Bedi was posted there.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: 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.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: For other prisoners, Bedi arranged vocational training with certificates, so that they could find a job after their release. During her tenure, Indira Gandhi National Open University and National Open School set up their centers inside the prison. Legal cells were set up to help the undertrials. Bedi banned smoking in the prison. The move faced a lot of resistance from the staff as well as the prisoners. She introduced yoga and Vipassana meditation classes to change the prisoners' attitudes. She organized additional activities such as sports, prayer, and festival celebrations. She also established a de-addiction center, and pulled up or imprisoned the staff members involved in drug supply. A bank was also opened inside the prison. A bakery and small manufacturing units, including carpentry and weaving units, were set up in the jail. The profits from the products sold were put into the prisoners' welfare fund.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: Bedi went on daily prison tours, observing the staff, listening to prisoners'complaints, inspecting food quality and evaluating overall management. She developed a panchayat system, where prisoners who were respected for their age, education, or character represented other inmates and met every evening with senior officers to sort out problems. She also established petition boxes so that prisoners could write to the IG about any issue. While the jail had suggestion boxes earlier too, the jail staff would destroy the complaints received through these boxes. On the other hand, the prisoners writing to Bedi received acknowledgment and information about the status of their petition.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: In this prison reform programme, Bedi involved outsiders – including NGOs, schools, civilians and former inmates. As a result of Bedi's reforms, there was a drop in the fights and disturbances in the jail. Even the hardened criminals, who had been isolated in separate barracks, started behaving well. Bedi then arranged for them to attend education and meditation courses.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: In May 1994, Bedi organized a 'health day', during which around 400 doctors and paramedics were invited to attend to Tihar's patients. Based on visits to two of Tihar's adolescent wards, a cardiologist associated with the Delhi Government's AIDS Control Programme, claimed that two-thirds of the inmates had acknowledged engaging in homosexual acts. He recommended distribution of condoms in the prison, a move supported by Delhi's Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and National AIDS Control Organisation. However, Kiran Bedi opposed the move pointing out that there were no HIV+ prisoners in Tihar. She stated that the distribution of condoms would encourage homosexual activity (illegal as per Section 377) among criminals. Based on a survey conducted through petition boxes, she claimed that incidence of consensual homosexual activity was negligible, and that the doctor's claim had hurt her prisoners. In response, the activist group ABVA filed a writ petition in the Delhi High Court demanding distribution of condoms in Tihar. Bedi termed the move as an attempt to force "western solutions" on "Tihar Ashram", and filed a counter affidavit opposing the demand.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: 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.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: 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.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: Sometime later, Bedi was invited by the United Nations to discuss social reintegration of prisoners at the Copenhagen Social Summit. When the Delhi Government refused to permit her, Bedi met the Minister of State for Home Rajesh Pilot on 4 March 1995. The meeting got extended, because of which Bedi had to cancel an appointment she had with the Chief Minister Khurana. Pilot gave her the permission, but this irked Khurana, who later exclaimed "If she thinks we have no importance, then why does she want to work for the Delhi Government?" While Bedi was in Copenhagen, the prominent farmers' leader Mahendra Singh Tikait was imprisoned in Tihar after a rally, and sought the BJP leaders' help in getting a hookah inside. However, the jail authorities refused to give permission for a hookah, since Bedi had earlier declared Tihar a no-smoking zone.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: Subsequently, Delhi's Lieutenant Governor P.K. Dave wrote a letter to the Union Home Secretary K. Padmanabhiah, accusing Bedi of "manipulating foreign trips", and leveled other charges against her. Dave accused Bedi of "compromising" the prison's security by allowing visitors – including American officials and foreign TV crews – inside the jail, without the Delhi government's permission. Another charge was that she had allowed NHRC representatives to meet TADA detainees from Kashmir, who had raised anti-national slogans. In her defence, Bedi argued that the TADA detainees had gone on a relay hunger strike demanding speedy trials. She also stated that the foreign TV crews had only shot the Vipassana meditation classes, and that she had the right to admit them under the rules. She also pointed out that the Union Government had itself asked her to allow the Americans – Lee P. Brown and Christine Wisner (wife of Frank G. Wisner) – inside the prison.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: Another charge against Bedi was giving undue favours to the notorious criminal Charles Sobhraj. At that time, the "Delhi Jail Manual" (written in 1894 and modified in 1988) listed a number of prohibited articles, one of which was a typewriter. However, the manual also gave the jail superintendent the power to allow any of these prohibited items in special cases. Using this power, Bedi permitted Sobhraj the use of an electronic typewriter (Sobhraj had already been given a manual typewriter before Bedi became the officer in-charge). Bedi had also allowed NGOs to start typing classes for prisoners, but Sobhraj claimed that he was using the typewriter to write her biography, which gave the authorities a reason to accuse Bedi of misusing her powers. Khurana also alleged that Sobhraj had been supplied with a pipe and foreign-made cigars, a charge refuted by the testimony of Sobhraj's former cell-mate. The prison manual also had an antiquated rule which stated that "caught escapees will wear a red cap". Sobhraj had escaped in 1986, before he was recaptured. Khurana alleged that Bedi had specially exempted him from wearing a red cap. However, a senior jail officer stated that he had never seen the 'red cap' rule being implemented in Tihar. PK Dave and Madan Lal Khurana got Bedi removed as the prisons in-charge on 3 May 1995. When her transfer was announced, the Tihar inmates went on a hunger strike to protest it, while some of the warders celebrated it by distributing sweets. 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".


title: Kiran Bedi

text: After her removal from Tihar, Bedi was posted as head of training at the police academy on 4 May 1995. Her designation was Additional Commissioner (policy and planning). She served as the Joint Commissioner of Police of Delhi Police. Later, she served as the Special Commissioner (Intelligence) of Delhi Police.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: On 5 April 1999, she was appointed as Inspector-General of Police in Chandigarh. Her mother accompanied her, but soon suffered a stroke and went into coma. Bedi requested a transfer back to Delhi, where her family would be able to take care of her mother. The Union Ministry of Home Affairs transferred her back to Delhi on 15 May. However, her mother died in Delhi three days later, after having been in coma for 41 days.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: In 2003, Bedi became the first woman to be appointed the United Nations civilian police adviser. She worked in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations. 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.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: 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.


title: Kiran Bedi

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


title: Kiran Bedi

text: 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.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: 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.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: She is a social commentator and trainer and frequently speaks on various social issues like education, domestic violence & others. During 2008–11, Bedi hosted the reality TV show "Aap Ki Kachehri" on STAR Plus. In this court show, Bedi resolved everyday conflicts in a simulated courtroom. In 2008, she launched the website to help people whose complaints are not accepted by the local police.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: 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.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: 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.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: 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.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: 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.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: 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 (CM). 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 Minister (CM) 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.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: Bedi took oath as the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry on 29 May 2016, and broke convention by addressing the gathering at the oath ceremony. She said she was there "on a mission to make the Union Territory of Puducherry a Prosperous Puducherry" and also gave "the TEA (Trust, Empowerment, Accountability) mantra to officers to work towards this mission."


title: Kiran Bedi

text: One of the first practices she initiated as the Lieutenant Governor was to open the gates of Raj Nivas 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 5 PM to meet the Lieutenant Governor in person and have their grievances addressed.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: Following a complaint about needing proactive monitoring in the city for certain issues, she personally began to step out on weekend mornings for doing the rounds on a cycle, on foot, by car, or, sometimes, even by bus and other public transport. These rounds have helped in solving sanitation issues, de-silting water channels, encouragement of cleanliness, solving garbage issues, and reviving the beaches, to mention a few. Her cycle rallies are extremely popular because she personally leads the rallies around the city, meets people, and even rewards them for their good work.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: Raj Nivas - as the "People’s Nivas" - celebrates nearly every festival in Puducherry on the lawns of the property, such as Pongal, Diwali, and Christmas. Raj Nivas also has a dedicated "visitor hours" every day from 12 PM to 1 PM where the general public are allowed to enter and see the French heritage building and to also get an opportunity to meet the Lieutenant Governor, and take a picture with her.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: Bedi's has also campaigned for justice in the medical admissions process. She has fought against vested interests and helped in establishing a cap on the fees for deserving students to get medical seats.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: 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.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: Bedi has introduced several best practices in Puducherry that are akin to management lessons that were outlined by her at the 50th Governors Conference in Delhi. From ensuring financial prudence, to bringing in community support, to having an open house, each of these practices have helped in massive development of Puducherry.


title: Kiran Bedi

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


title: Kiran Bedi

text: The Book ‘Fearless Governance’ by Dr Kiran Bedi, former Lt Governor of Puducherry and IPS (retd) is a revelation of stark realities of governance. This book is based on the ground realities of nearly five years of service of Dr. Bedi as Lt. Governor of Puducherry and her vast experience of 40 years in the Indian Police Service. The author demonstrates the right practises of responsible governance. She brought about team spirit, collaboration, financial prudence, effective policing, bonding in services and decision making through fearless leadership. 'Fearless Governance' is a book to read, see, hear and feel for good governance and leadership. It is illustrated with photographs, graphics and short videos that are accessible through QR Code.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: In the words of Indra Nooyi, Former Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, "Fearless Governance is a blueprint for good and effective governance. The leadership practices cut across public and private sectors"


title: Kiran Bedi

text: Kiran Bedi along with three of her sisters were born to the family of Prakash Lal Peshawaria and Prem Lata Peshawaria. Indian-American lawyer Anu Peshawaria is Bedi's younger sister.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: She met her future husband Brij Bedi on 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 married at a simple ceremony at the local Shivalaya temple. The two have lived separately for most of their married life. The couple had a daughter in 1975; originally named Sukriti, she later changed her name to Saina.


title: Kiran Bedi

text: 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".


title: Kiran Bedi

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


title: Kiran Bedi

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


title: Kiran Bedi

text: Kiran Bedi was featured in National Geographic's Series "Mega Icons" (2018), which revolves around her life.


title: Sons of Liberty

text: The Sons of Liberty was a loosely organized, clandestine, sometimes violent, political organization active in the Thirteen American Colonies founded to advance the rights of the colonists and to fight taxation by the British government. It played a major role in most colonies in battling the Stamp Act in 1765 and throughout the entire period of the American Revolution.


title: Sons of Liberty

text: In popular thought, the Sons of Liberty was a formal underground organization with recognized members and leaders. More likely, the name was an underground term for any men resisting new Crown taxes and laws. The well-known label allowed organizers to make or create anonymous summons to a Liberty Tree, "Liberty Pole", or other public meeting-place. Furthermore, a unifying name helped to promote inter-Colonial efforts against Parliament and the Crown's actions. Their motto became "No taxation without representation."


title: Sons of Liberty

text: In 1765, the British government needed money to afford the 10,000 officers and soldiers living in the colonies, and intended that the colonists living there should contribute. The British passed a series of taxes aimed at the colonists, and many of the colonists refused to pay certain taxes; they argued that they should not be held accountable for taxes which were decided upon without any form of their consent through a representative. This became commonly known as "No Taxation without Representation." Parliament insisted on its right to rule the colonies despite the fact that the colonists had no representative in Parliament. The most incendiary tax was the Stamp Act of 1765, which caused a firestorm of opposition through legislative resolutions (starting in the colony of Virginia), public demonstrations, threats, and occasional hurtful losses.


title: Sons of Liberty

text: The name is presumed to have been inspired by the phrase's use in a pro-American, anti-taxation speech in the House of Commons on February 6, 1765, by Irish MP Isaac Barré.


title: Sons of Liberty

text: The organization spread hour by hour, after independent starts in several different colonies. In August 1765, the group was founded in Boston, Massachusetts. A precursor of this group was the Loyal Nine. By November 6, a committee was set up in New York to correspond with other colonies. In December, an alliance was formed between groups in New York and Connecticut. January bore witness to a correspondence link between Boston and New York City, and by March, Providence had initiated connections with New York, New Hampshire, and Newport, Rhode Island. March also marked the emergence of Sons of Liberty organizations in New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia.