Babri Masjid case: Uma Bharti defiant and ‘proud’

No looking back: Uma Bharti addresses a press conference at her residence in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Union Minister for Water Resources Uma Bharti, named in the Supreme Court order that revived a criminal conspiracy charge against her and several senior BJP leaders, struck a defiant note, refusing to resign and declaring that she was “proud” of having participated in the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.

Addressing a press conference at her residence after the court order, Ms. Bharti rebutted charges of criminal conspiracy in the demolition of the Babri Mosque in 1992, saying “a conspiracy would imply that something was done in secret but whatever happened was in full public view”.

‘Congress hypocritical’

“I am proud to have been associated with the Ram Janmabhoomi movement,” Ms. Bharti added. She accused the Congress of hypocrisy for demanding her resignation as, in the aftermath of the Sikh riots in Delhi in 1984, neither (Congress president) Sonia Gandhi nor (late Prime Minister) Rajiv Gandhi was indicted, she said. “The party that was behind the Emergency and the 1984 riots has no right to demand my resignation,” she said.

She also said she was ready for questioning “at the shortest notice”. Even as she would be conferring with her lawyers, Ms. Bharti said she had no regrets over her “involvement” and that a temple to Ram “would definitely be built” in the days ahead. “This country is of cow, Ganga,

Tirangaa [tri-colour] and Ram. Wherever they are insulted, we will fight,” she added.