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Cartoon: Venkaiah demands UP minister's arrest

February 18, 2006 19:29 IST

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday demanded the arrest and dismissal of Uttar Pradesh Haj Minister Mohammed Yaqoob Qureshi who announced a reward of Rs 51 crore and gold for the head of the Danish cartoonist who lampooned Prophet Mohammed.

Terming the reward a result of a "mad competition" of vote-bank politics between Samajwadi Party and Congress, former party president M Venkaiah Naidu demanded immediate action.

"The BJP disapproves such caricatures, whether Danish or Indian. The so-called secularists have shown no opposition to the caricature of noted painter M F Hussain," he told a news conference in Chennai.

"How can a minister give such a statement? This is cheap tactics and an attempt at vote bank politics," he said.

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