A minister in the Uttar Pradesh government has announced a bounty of Rs 51 crore (about $11.5 million) to anyone who beheads the Danish cartoonists "who dared to make the caricature of the Prophet". The Minister of State for Haj and Minorities Welfare, Hazi Yakoob Qureshi, also Friday told a 25,000-strong crowd of protestors in Meerut, that the assassin would get gold equivalent to his weight.
"The people of Meerut will contribute for the reward," Qureshi told the crowd which subsequently burnt an effigy of the cartoonists and courted arrest demanding that India sever diplomatic ties with Denmark. They were released shortly after.
Although the minister said he had made the announcement not as a minister, but as an "honest Muslim", Qureshi later said he had made the statement after consulting Uttar Pradesh Chief Minsiter, Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Asian Age reported.
The Times of India said Yadav was not ready to comment on Yakoob’s outrageous demand, and the Samajwadi Party was cautious not to be seen as dismissive of Yakoob. Party leaders, off the record, said the minister was probably just responding to a charged atmosphere. SP general secretary Amar Singh said, "I would exercise my restraint in giving any reaction because it may have far-reaching implications."
The state government, acording to Hindustan Times, is not contemplating any action against the minister for the inflammatory speech, arguing that it is "no offence" to make such an announcement against "someone living in a distant country". Principal secretary (Home) Alok Sinha said Quereshi was just expressing the sentiments of the people of Meerut, and that it did not constitute any criminal offence.
"The announcement had been made taking into account the feelings of the people... There is no offence to make such an announcement about a person living in a distant foreign country," Sinha told reporters. "In a democracy such announcements are made in a normal way� It cannot be said to be a law and order issue".
"Anyone who does anything wrong has to be punished under the law of the land to which he belongs," Idgah Imam Maulana Khalid Rasheed was quoted as saying by the Times of India. "Such statements only go on to help those targeting Muslims across the world. This will be an opportunity to accuse minorities of violent thoughts."
The All-India Muslim Personal Board also dismissed the minister's bounty statement. "In our religion, the authority to pronounce a judgment rests only with a qazi and no one else," said board member Zafaryab Jilani. "Had such a statement originated from a native of an Islamic country, then under the laws of that country it could have been justified, but not in India."
