Reaching Hubli after a day-long train journey for surrendering before a court, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharti on Wednesday asserted she will not seek bail in the 10-year old criminal case filed against her.
"I will surrender before the court. If I am put in jail, I will stay there. If I am released I will take to the streets for the right to unfurl national flag at the Idgah Maidan here. I have decided not to seek bail," she told reporters and a crowd of supporters shortly after arriving at the railway station in Hubli on board the Goa Express.
Perched atop an Ambassador car and flanked by Karnataka BJP chief Ananth Kumar and Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly A D Yediyurappa, Bharti accused the Karnataka government of being confused on the issue of case.
She charged the state government with working working under the dictates of "an Italian woman," an obvious reference to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
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Bharti also said the state Chief Minister Dharam Singh had lost his wisdom in acting on Gandhi's directions.
Addressing her supporters after a 30-hour journey from Bhopal, Bharti said she was not afraid of going to jail.
She said she got to know of the non-bailable warrant only from the media last week.
Rejecting charges that BJP was politicising the issue, she said the boot was on the other leg. "It was in the Congress that was seeking to politicise the issue ahead of the elections in Maharashtra."
Asked why she did not appear before the court earlier, Bharti said the arrest warrants were never produced to her.
"When the arrest warrants were first issued, I was in the opposition and Madhya Pradesh had a Congress chief minister in Digvijay Singh. It is Singh who is to be faulted if the warrants were not executed," she said.
The sadhvi accused Congress of trying to play communal politics by reviving cases against her which the state government itself had withdrawn earlier.
"They are indulging in vote bank politics clearly with an eye on Maharashtra elections," she said.
She appealed to BJP workers in Karnataka to cooperate with the state police and not disturb peace in the state after she is arrested.
"I will not seek a bail as it would tantamout to an insult to the national flag. I am being put behind the bars for hoisting the national flag, an act which I don't consider a crime. So if I seek bail, I would be insulting the tricolour," she said.
Bharti did not agree with the case made by the Karnataka government of inciting violence after the hoisting of the national tricolour at the banned site at Idgah Maidan here, which left five people dead.
"There was no mob when I was arrested from the Idgah Maidan (in 1994). People died in clashes with the police after my arrest," she said.
Bharti said she will cooperate with the Karnataka police in execution of the warrants.
Bharti said the Congress had "insulted" the tricolour. "I don't want to gain any political mileage. But definitely, I will have to make the country aware of it," she said.
Asked if she would hoist the national flag at the Idgah Maidan again, she said, "After the Supreme Court ruling, the flag could be unfurled in every inch of land. I have the constitutional right and lawfully also (to do so). If Dharam Singh says it is not right, I will ask him to read the Constitution and the Supreme Court ruling."
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