Kiran Bedi peeps through a scarf while mocking politicians on the Ramlila Maidan stage on Friday. (PTI)

New Delhi, Aug. 28: Kiran Bedi spent much of her police career ripping law-breakers’ masks. She wore one herself last week, but had no regrets doing a Jim Carrey.

“It (wearing a scarf like a mask) went against my grain. It is not in my training but it was worth it.… I did not mean to hurt anybody,” Bedi said about her televised mimicry on Friday during Anna Hazare’s fast to poke fun at politicians who she claimed had “several masks”.

The retired IPS officer — once called Crane Bedi after she towed away the Prime Minister’s car for a parking violation — had pulled a scarf from an activist on stage at the Ramlila grounds, wrapped it around her head and mocked MPs. She did so pointing to BJP leaders Gopinath Munde and Ananth Kumar who had come to persuade Hazare to end his fast.

“Look at them. They say one thing here and one thing outside. You remove one mask, then you find another one, and then another,” she had said to clapping and hooting from the crowd. The images revived memories of Carrey’s turn in the 1994 Hollywood hit, The Mask.

Today, she insisted her action ought to be seen in the context of the “heat and dust” and the “disdain and disgust” over the lack of a breakthrough on Hazare’s 11th day of fasting. “It shouldn’t be seen in isolation,” she said.

Bedi also claimed the plain-speaking by Team Anna during the negotiations had not gone down well with the government. She suggested an independent person should take minutes of the meeting in such talks in the future so that neither side could accuse the other of distorting words.

The Gandhian’s associates had alleged after one such meeting last week that Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, the government’s chief negotiator, had told them Hazare’s continued fasting “was not the government’s problem”. Mukherjee later denied having made such a remark.

Om Puri sorry

Om Puri tonight apologised for having made derogatory remarks against politicians at the Ramlila grounds on Friday, but denied he was drunk.

Samajwadi Party Rajya Sabha MP Ram Gopal Yadav moved a privilege motion against the actor yesterday. Puri, who had called politicians naalayak (incompetent) and ganwaar (illiterate), today said his choice of words was inappropriate.