|
- By Parinda News Bureau, February 23, 2006, 14:38 IST
The 'Hindu Personal Law Board' today announced a Rs 51 crore reward (About $11.5 million) for eliminating artist M F Husain and others on its 'hit list' while a Congress minority cell leader offered Rs 11 lakh to any "patriot" for chopping off the painter's hands for hurting Hindu sentiments. Husain is under fire for his nude paintings of goddess Saraswati and Bharat Mata.
Among others whom the board has blacklisted are the Danish cartoonist, who's cartoons have caused havoc in the Islamic world, the owners of the German company that printed pictures of Ram and Krishna on tissue paper and the French filmmaker, who desecrated Lord Shiva.
The person who does the good deed will be given Rs 51 crore in cash by the board," its president Ashok Pandey said in a statement in Lucknow.
If Uttar Pradesh Haj Minister Yaqoob Qureshi undertook the job, "he will be given Rs 101 crore", the statement added tongue-in-cheek. "Peace will not prevail on Earth unless such people are eliminated," he said and urged Qureshi to set out on the mission. Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee Minority Cell vice-chairman Akthar Baig, in a statement in Indore, said the painter had "played with the sentiments of the people and tried to vitiate communal harmony by his obnoxious paintings. "It would be in the interest of the nation if a patriot chops off his hands. I will give that person Rs 11 lakh." (About $25,000) he said. The Congress leader asked the government to take back all honours bestowed on the painter and declare him a "traitor". Baig had earlier filed a petition in an Indore court against Bollywood actor Dharmendra's purported second marriage to Hema Malini.
| 
