Arvind Kejriwal is an Indian social activist who founded the Right to Information movement in India and campaigned for greater transparency in government. He was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership in 2006 for empowering citizens to fight corruption. Kejriwal is currently leading the Aam Aadmi Party and advocating for the passage of the Jan Lokpal anti-corruption bill.

1. Arvind Kumar Kejriwal (Hindi: ) (born 16 June 1968) is an Indian social activist
[1]
fighting for greater transparency in Government. He was awarded Ramon Magsaysay Award for
Emergent Leadership in 2006, for activating India's Right to Informationmovement at grassroots and
social activities to empower the poorest citizens to fight corruption by holding the government
[2]
answerable to the people. Kejriwal is also a Saathi (fellow) of the Association for India's
[3]
Development.
Contents
[hide]
1 Early life
2 Career
o 2.1 Right to Information
o 2.2 Jan Lokpal Bill
3 Personal Life
4 Awards
5 Books
6 Criticism in Media
7 See also
8 References
9 External links
[edit]Early life
[citation needed] [1]
Arvind Kejriwal was born in a Marwari family in Hissar, Haryana in 1968. His father was
an engineer and he spent most of his childhood living in small northern Indian towns
like Sonepat, Mathura and Hissar. Kejriwal graduated from IIT Kharagpur as a Mechanical engineer in
[4][5]
1989.
[edit]Career
Kejriwal joined Tata Steel right after his graduation from IIT Kharagpur. Kejriwal quit his job with Tata
[citation needed]
Steel in 1992 and spent some time working with Mother Teresa's Missionaries of
[6][7]
Charity in Kolkata, the Ramakrishna Mission in the North-East India and Nehru Yuva Kendra.
Kejriwal joined the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) in 1995 and worked as an Additional Commissioner
[7]
of Income Tax in Delhi. In January 2000, he took a sabbatical from work and founded Parivartan, a
Delhi based citizens’ movement which works on ensuring a just, transparent and accountable
governance. Thereafter, in February 2006, he resigned from the job, to work full-time at Parivartan. In
December 2006, Kejriwal along with Manish Sisodia and Abhinandan Sekhri started Public Cause

2. Research Foundation, which works for promoting better local self governance and RTI related
[8]
campaigns
[edit]Right to Information
He along with Aruna Roy and others, campaigned for the Right to Information Act (RTI), which soon
[4]
became a silent social movement, Delhi Right to Information Act was passed in 2001 and eventually
at national level Indian Parliament passed the RTI in 2005. Thereafter, in July 2006, he spearheaded
[9]
an awareness campaign for RTI across India. To motivate others Arvind has now instituted an RTI
[10]
Award through his organisation. Kejriwal has been using RTI in corruption cases in many
government departments including the Income Tax department, theMunicipal Corporation of Delhi,
[6]
the Public Distribution System (PDS), the Delhi Electricity Board and others.
[edit]Jan Lokpal Bill
As a member of India Against Corruption (IAC) Kejriwal is an active participant in the movement for
the enactment of Jan Lokpal Bill. He is considered a key figure along with social activist Anna
[11]
Hazare. On August 16 2011, Key members of the India Against Corruption including Kejriwal were
[12]
arrested, four hours before the planned indefinite hunger strike by Hazare. Rajan Bhagat,
spokesman for Delhi Police, said police arrested Hazare under a legal provision that bans public
gatherings and protests at the park in Delhi where Hazare was planning to begin his hunger strike.
Activists were later released same day although they spent two more days in the Tihar jail negotiating
[13]
conditions put on protest. Kejriwal left the jail on August 18 and the protests started the following
[14]
day from Ramlila Maidan in Delhi. After twelve days of protests and many discussions between the
government and the activists, Parliament passed a resolution to consider three points in drafting of
[15]
Lokpal bill.
[edit]Personal Life
Kejriwal is married to Sunita, who is an IRS officer and his batchmate from National Academy of
[5] [7]
Administration in Mussoorie. They live just outside Delhi with their two children.
[edit]Awards
[6]
 2004: Ashoka Fellow, Civic Engagement.
 2005: 'Satyendra Dubey Memorial Award', IIT Kanpur for his campaign for bringing transparency
[4]
in Government.
[2]
 2006: Ramon Magsaysay Award for Eminent Leadership.
[16]
 2006: CNN-IBN, 'Indian of the Year' in Public Service
[1]
 2009: Distinguished Alumnus Award, IIT Kharagpur for Eminent Leadership.
 2010: Policy Change Agent of the Year, The Economic Times Awards for Corporate
[17]
Excellence along with Aruna Roy.
[edit]Books

3. The Right to Information : Vyawharik Margdarshika - Co-Author - Vishnu Rajgadia, Published by
[
Rajkamal Prakashan, New Delhi. in the year 2008.
Kiran Bedi (Punjab: ) (born 9 June 1949) is an Indian social activist and a retired Indian
Police Service (IPS) officer. Bedi joined police services in 1972 and become first woman officer in
[2]
IPS. Bedi held the post of Director General at the Bureau of Police Research and
[3]
Development before she voluntary retired from the IPS in December 2007. Bedi was the host and
judge of the popular TV series "Aap Ki Kachehri" (English, "Your Court"), which is based on real-life
[4]
disputes and provides a platform for settling disputes between consenting parties.
She has also founded two NGOs in India: Navjyoti Delhi Police Foundation for welfare and preventive
[5]
policing in 1988 which was later renamed as Navjyoti India Foundation in 2007 and the India Vision
[6]
Foundation for prison reformation, drug abuse prevention and child welfare in 1994. Bedi was
[7]
awarded Ramon Magsaysay award in 1994 for Government service.
Contents
[hide]
1 Early life and education
2 Career
3 Social initiatives
o 3.1 Lokpal Movement
4 Honours and Awards
5 Controversies
6 In films and literature
7 Bibliography
8 See also
9 References
10 External links
[edit]Early life and education
Kiran Bedi was born in Amritsar, Punjab, India. She is the second of the four daughters of Prakash
Peshawaria and Prem Peshawaria. Among her other three siblings, Shashi is an artist settled in
Canada, Reeta is a clinical psychologist and writer, and Anu is a lawyer.
She attended the Sacred Heart Convent School, Amritsar, where she joined the National Cadet
[1]
Corps(NCC). She took up tennis, a passion she inherited from her father, a tennis player. She won

4. the Junior National Lawn Tennis Championship in 1966, the Asian Lawn Tennis Championship in
[8]
1972, and the All-India Interstate Women's Lawn Tennis Championship in 1976. In addition, she
also won the All-Asian Tennis Championship, and won the Asian Ladies Title at the age of 22.
She earned her Bachelor of Arts in English (Hons.) from the Government College for Women,
Amritsar in 1968. She then earned a Master’s degree in Political Science from Punjab
University, Chandigarh, graduating at the top of her class in 1970. She later obtained Bachelor of
Laws in 1988 from University of Delhi. In 1993, she obtained a Ph.D. in Social Sciences from the
[9]
Department of Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, where the topic of her
[10]
thesis was 'Drug Abuse and Domestic Violence'.
[1]
In 1972, Kiran Bedi married Brij Bedi, a textile machine manufacturer whom she met at the Amritsar
tennis courts. Neither of them followed strict religous rituals, so married in a quasi-religous ceremony
[1]
at a local Shiva temple. Three years later, in 1975, they had daughter Saina. Her daughter Saina is
also involved in community service. In one of her lectures in a corporate meeting, Kiran Bedi
expressed that everyone in the society has an important role to play which will enable others to fulfill
their duties (or important tasks) quoting the example of her uneducated housemaid whose help in
Bedi's daily household work had helped Bedi to complete an important task of writing a book.
[edit]Career
She began her career as a Lecturer in Political Science (1970–72) at Khalsa College for Women,
[11]
Amritsar. In July 1972, she joined the Indian Police Service, becoming the first woman to do so .
[12]
Bedi joined the police service "because of [her] urge to be outstanding".
She served in a number of tough assignments ranging from New Delhi traffic postings, Deputy
Inspector General of Police in insurgency prone Mizoram, Advisor to the Lieutenant Governor
of Chandigarh, Director General of Narcotics Control Bureau, to a United Nations delegation, where
[13]
she became the Civilian Police Advisor in United Nations peacekeeping operations. For her work in
[14]
the UN, she was awarded a UN medal. She is popularly referred to as Crane Bedi for towing the
[15]
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's car for a parking violation, during the PM's tour of United States at
[9]
the time.
Kiran Bedi influenced several decisions of the Indian Police Service, particularly in the areas
of narcotics control, traffic management, and VIP security. During her stint as the Inspector General of
Prisons, in Tihar Jail (Delhi) (1993–1995), she instituted a number of reforms in the management of
the prison, and initiated a number of measures such as detoxification programs, Art of Living
[16]
Foundation Prison Courses, yoga, vipassana meditation, Murat redressing of complaints by
[17]
prisoners and literacy programs. For this she won the 1994Ramon Magsaysay Award, and the
[10]
'Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship', to write about her work at Tihar Jail.
She was last appointed as Director General of India's Bureau of Police Research and Development.

5. In May 2005, she was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Law in recognition of her
[18]
“humanitarian approach to prison reforms and policing”.
On 27 November 2007, she had expressed her wish to voluntarily retire from the police force to
undertake new challenges in life. On 25 December 2007, the Government of India agreed to relieve
Bedi of her duties as Director General of the Bureau of Police Research and Development.
[edit]Social initiatives
Bedi at a "Successful Women in Management" (SWIM) conference, 2007
[5]
Navjyoti (which literally means New Enlightenment), set up in 1987, and India Vision Foundation, set
up in 1994, are the two major voluntary organizations established by her with the objectives of
improving the condition of drug addicts and poor people. Her efforts have won national and
international recognition, and her organizations were awarded the "Serge Soitiroff Memorial Award"
for drug abuse prevention by the United Nations.
After retirement, Kiran Bedi launched a new website, www.saferindia.com, on January 3, 2007. The
motto of this website is to help people whose complaints are not accepted by the local police. This
project is undertaken by the non-profit, voluntary and non-government organization she founded, the
India Vision Foundation.[2]
[edit]Lokpal Movement
Kiran Bedi is one of the prominent members of the Anna Hazare team which is on a nationwide
protest against corruption and is urging the government to enact the Lokpal Bill and has conducted
numerous protests and demonstrations throughout the country in the last year. Kiran Bedi has done
enormous efforts for the feeling of what a true independence is and Jan Lokpal is the light towards it.
On Aug 16th 2011, Kiran Bedi courted arrest as part of the agitation called for by anti-graft activist
Anna Hazare, of which Kiran Bedi is one of the front-line members. However, she was later released
in the evening.
In the Indian Parliament MPs have moved "Privilage Motion against Kiran Bedi and Om Puri" who
have allegedly mocked the parliamentarians during the Anna Hazare agitation.
Indian Express on 28th Aug 2011 reported about Kiran Bedi in its article titled 'The negotiators, their
role' as "A former cop, Bedi emerged as an unrelenting hardliner. Had to be withdrawn from
negotiations."

6. [edit]Honours and Awards
Year of Award or
Name of Award or Honor Awarding Organization References
Honor
[19]
2011 Bharatiya Manavata Vikas Puraskar Indian Institute of Planning and Management
2010 STAR Parivar Award STAR Plus
Mother Teresa Memorial National
2005 Indian Development Foundation (IDF)
Award
2004 United Nations Medal United Nations
Blue Drop Group Management, Cultural and
2002 Woman of the Year Award
Artistic Association, Italy.
American Federation of Muslims of Indian Origin
1999 Pride of India Award
(AFMI)
1997 Fourth Joseph Beuys Award Germany
1995 Lion of the Year
Father Machismo Humanitarian
1995 Don Bosco Shrine Office, Bombay-India
Award
1995 Mahila Shiromani Award
1994 Magsaysay Award Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation
Asia Region Award for Drug International Organisation of Good Templars
1991
Prevention and Control (IOGT), Norway
1981 Women of the Year Award National Solidarity Weekly, India
1979 President’s Gallantry Award President of India

7. [edit]Controversies
In July 1994, Kiran Bedi, the then Inspector-General of Prisons of Tihar Jail was pulled up by
the Supreme Court of India for ignoring the apex court directives for providing medical attention to a
foreign under-trial prisoner by initiating contempt proceedings against her. She escaped from
punishment despite being heavily reprimanded, in view of her winning the Magsasay Award, the court
[20]
exonerating her from further proceedings.
[edit]In films and literature
A non fiction feature film on Kiran Bedi's life, Yes Madam, Sir, has been produced by Australian film
maker, Megan Doneman. This film is being screened in film festivals around the world. Its
commentator is an Academy Award winner, Helen Mirren. Kiran Bedi was present during its
screenings in Toronto, Dubai and Adelaide, and to address the Q&A sessions at the end of each
show. Every time it has been screened, it has received a standing ovation.
The documentary has made a clean sweep of the award categories---“Best Documentary” with a cash
award of $100,000, the biggest prize for a documentary in any film festival in the US and the Social
Justice Award with $2500 at Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Yes Madam, Sir got a
unanimous vote from the jury.
In 2006, Norwegian Mpower Film & Media and film maker Oystein Rakkenes released another
documentary on Bedi and her prison revolution in Tihar Central Jail, In Gandhi's footsteps. The film
was awarded Best Documentary at the Indo-American Film Festival in Atlanta, in November 2006.
Kiran Bedi also became host in 2009-10 on the TV show Aap Ki Kachehri Kiran Ke Saath on Star
Plus.
Biographies of Bedi:
[21]
 I dare!: Kiran Bedi : a biography by Parmesh Dangwal
[22]
 Kiran Bedi, the kindly baton by Meenakshi Saxena
[edit]Bibliography
[23]
 It's always possible: transforming one of the largest prisons in the world (1999) by Kiran Bedi
 "What Went Wrong?", collection of The fortnightly column written by Kiran Bedi.
[10]
 The Motivating Bedi by Kiran Bedi.
 Government@net: new governance opportunities for India(2001) by Kiran Bedi, Sandeep
[24]
Srivastava and Parminder Jeet Singh
[25]
 As I see-(2005) by Kiran Bedi
 Himmat Hai by Kiran Bed

8. Prashant Bhushan Hindi: (born 1956) is a senior advocate, the Supreme Court of
[1]
India and social activist. He is the son of eminent lawyer and former Law Minister of India Shanti
Bhushan. He Lives in Noida,Uttar Pradesh.
He is a social activist who helps people through the higher judicial system. In his career of 15 years
he has worked on around 500 PILs (Public interest Litigation). He is a strong supporter of a Clean
Judiciary.
He alongwith Arvind Kejariwal is the prime mover of Anna Hazare-led anti corruption movement in
India.
He was a member of the joint committee constituted in April 2011 by Govt of India to draft the Lokpal
Bill. He alongwith other members of Team Anna had clashes of views with Govt nominees ( ministers)
on the said bill. He even termed the Lokpal Bill introduced by Govt in the Parliament as the Promotion
of Corruption Bill as it contains harsh punishment for whistleblowers and gives more than fair
protection to the alleged corrupt like giving opportunity of being heard before investigation.
Indian parliament has issued him ( besides Arvind Kejariwal and Kiran Bedi ) a notice of breach of
privilege for his alleged remarks against the Parliament and parliamentarians which he denied but
maintained that it's a violation of principle of natural justice as nobody can be a judge in one's own
cause.
Contents
[hide]
1 Education
2 Works
3 See also
4 References
5 Interviews
6 External links
Education
He studied in IIT Madras, which he quit after a semester in Mechanical Engineering. He studied
[2]
economics and then philosophy (of science) at Princeton and doing his law from Allahabad
University.
Works

9. He is the author of two books :
 Important Cases Litigation
 2G Scam by A.Raja & team.
 Appointment of Thomas as CVC chief
 Doon Valley case
 Bhopal gas tragedy litigation
 Narmada case