In a development that could put the Congress-led UPA-government firmly on the defensive and boost the BJP's morale, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharti on Saturday sent her resignation (the real one) to the BJP parliamentary board.
The decision follows a Karnataka court's decision to issue a non- bailable warrant of arrest against her in connection with a 1995 criminal case involving hoisting the national flag at the Hubli Idgah and making a provocative speech. The action, said the court, led to a riot and the death of four people in police firing. This is the second time the moody chief minister has put in her papers since the BJP's electoral defeat at the Centre in May. Ms Bharti said she would persuade the board to accept her resignation.
In a separate three-page letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, the fiery sadhvi said now that she had done what was expected of any principled politician in the public interest, Mrs Gandhi too should have the courage to get the three tainted ministers in the Manmohan Singh ministry to resign. Ms Bharti also invited Mrs Gandhi to participate in a national debate on the importance and implications of hoisting the tricolour.
Dropped was the clear hint that the Congress was behind the conspiracy since the act of flag-raising at the Idgah wasn't a crime till June 21, 2004, but suddenly became one this month. What's worse, said Ms Bharti, is that she was being pulled up for an "offence" which she had failed to commit: the police had nabbed her before she could either hoist the flag or make a speech, exhortative or otherwise. Besides former Karnataka chief minister S.M. Krishna had officially conveyed to her in 2002 that the case against her stood withdrawn. It was just two days ago that she learnt that the Dharam Singh regime had decided to "stop its withdrawal."
Addressing a crowded press conference, Ms Bharti said she had informed senior BJP leader L.K. Advani in writing of her intention to go on a "Tiranga Yatra" from Hubli to Jalianwala Bagh from the August 24 with halts at Mumbai's August Kranti Maidan and the shores of the Ravi river. It was on the banks of the Ravi that freedom fighters had intoned a pledge for Independence on January 26, 1930. The yatra, she said, was being undertaken to arrest the steady decline of national values in politics. "Deshi-videshi ki samajh khatm ho gayi hai (People have become oblivious of the fine line between national and foreign)."
Taking the moral high ground, the sadhvi informed Mrs Gandhi of the circumstances in which she was framed in the Hubli case. Mr Veerappa Moily was the Karnataka chief minister, and she president of the BJP Yuva Morcha in 1994. On learning that there was a ban on hoisting the national flag at Hubli, Ms Bharti said it was decided to form a Dhwaj Samman Samiti under whose aegis a plan was mooted to put out scores of flags at the Idgah on 15 August. The Karnataka government promptly placed a ban on her entry in the state. However, she managed to sneak into town along with thousands of supporters 24 hours earlier. Unfortunately, though deliriously happy members of the morcha succeeded in fluttering the tricolour the next day, the police arrested her three kilometres from the chosen site, and had her packed off to Delhi. The morcha's actions, however, had a healthy outcome: the tricolour has been regularly unfurled by the state authorities at the same place since.
Ms Bharti's letter said that having
twice failed to become the Prime Minister, the thirst for power was still
strong in Mrs Gandhi. Public sentiment had compelled the latter to turn
down the job this time. But it was painted as a supreme act of sacrifice.
The sheer hypocrisy of it was evident when she was appointed as head of
the UPA with Cabinet rank, and a plush office.