Cartoons - Vote-bank politics

Outlook India

Beni Prasad Verma backs bounty for Danish cartoonist

BARABANKI, MAY 5 (PTI)

Virtually endorsing a Uttar Pradesh minister's announcement of a reward for anyone beheading those reponsible for caricatures of Prophet Mohammed, Samajwadi Party leader Beni Prasad Verma today said he would give half his properties to the person who killed the cartoonist.

Speaking to reporters here, Verma, general secretary of the Samajwadi Party, alleged Christian countries had always been "anti-Muslim".

Haji Yaqoob Qureshi, Uttar Pradesh's minister for Haj, had earlier announced a reward of Rs 51 crore for anyone who beheaded the artist reponsible for the cartoons first carried by a Danish publication. The move triggered a widespread controversy that cost Qureshi his ministerial post.

Verma said the Samajwadi Party had always fought for the dignity and pride of Muslims and would not tolerate their humiliation.

Alleging that the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre was anti-Muslim, Verma claimed it had pressurised Uttar Pradesh Governor T V Rajeshwar not to give his assent to the Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar Urdu University Bill.