Lucknow, July 17 - Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati said Friday that she prevented Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) workers across India from 'reacting violently' to the state Congress chief's remarks which she felt were insulting to her as a woman and a Dalit.

'I can assure you that if my party members had come out on the streets across the country to express their anger against (Rita Bahuguna Joshi), there would have been anarchy everywhere,' Maywati told reporters here.

Joshi, the Uttar Pradesh Congress president, was arrested late Wednesday and jailed for giving a speech against Mayawati and charged under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

A mob shouting pro-Mayawati slogans later attacked and torched Joshi's house in Lucknow. The BSP denied its involvement in the arson.

'If I had not restrained my party members from reacting violently to Joshi's remarks, the entire country would have been on the boil. The Congress should be grateful to me for that.