Rs 51cr ‘reward’ for killing MF Husain

LUCKNOW/INDORE: The Hindu Personal Law Board on Wednesday announced a Rs 51 crore reward for eliminating artist M F Husain and others while a Congress minority cell leader offered Rs 11 lakh to any "patriot" chopping off the painter's hands for hurting Hindu sentiments.
    
"Anyone who kills Husain for making obscene paintings of goddess Sarswati and Bharat Mata, the Danish cartoonist, those in the German company printing pictures of Ram and Krishna on tissue paper and the French filmmaker desecrating Lord Shiva will be given Rs 51 crore in cash by the board," its president Ashok Pandey said in Lucknow.
    
If Uttar Pradesh Haj Minister Yaqoob Qureshi undertook the job "he will be given Rs 101 crore," it added cryptically.
    
"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 Indore said the painter had "played with the sentiments of the people and tried to disrupt communal harmony in the past by painting nude pictures of Hindu gods and goddess and now of Bharat Mata".
    
It will be in the "interest of the nation if a patriot will chop off his hands. I will give that person Rs 11 lakh," he said.
    
The Congress leader asked the government to take back all the honours bestowed on the noted painter and declare him a "traitor".
    
Baig had filed a petition in an Indore court against Bollywood actor Dharmendra's purported second marriage to Hema Malini.