Manupal Hansal, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader from Uttar Pradesh, has placed a Rs 2 crore bounty on the head of Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, stating that Indian people are angry at the minister’s remarks about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Mai ailaan karta hoon ke jo uss mantri Bilawal Bhutto ka dhar se sar alag karega, 2 crore ka inaam mai doonga” [I declare that I will give a reward of ₹2 crore to anyone who will behead Minister Bilawal Bhutto], Hansal had said.
The BJP also held protests across India and in front of the Pakistan Embassy in New Delhi, burning effigies of the Pakistani foreign minister.
Minister of Climate Change Sherry Rehman has condemned Hansal’s remarks in a tweet, saying that this was a testament of “the shocking impunity that extremism enjoys for doing only what terrorists do in Modi’s RSS-defined India”.
In an interview with “Bloomberg“, Bilawal Bhutto stood by his statement about Modi by pointing out that what he had said was “a historical fact”. He also pointed out that the term “butcher of Gujarat” had not been coined by him, but by the people of Gujarat after the 2002 Godhra incident. He further added that he was aware of the bounty a BJP leader had placed on his head.
“I was referring to a historical reality. The remarks I used weren’t my own. I did not invent the term ‘butcher of Gujarat’ for Mr Modi. The Muslims of India following the Gujarat riots used that term for Mr Modi. I believe I was referring to a historical fact and they believe that repeating history is a personal insult. If I was incorrect then … So what has happened today… it’s been two days since my remark, a member of Mr Modi’s party has announced 20 million rupee bounty on my head. So I don’t think the best way to disapprove the fact that Mr Modi is the butcher of Gujarat is to adopt such extreme steps,” he said in the interview.
When the interviewer had further questioned Bilawal on whether these comments might further sour relations with India and even the possibility of nuclear war, the FM pointed out that Indian citizens had the right to protest, but the threat to his life was very problematic:
“As far as my remarks concerned they resulted in protests all over India and that’s their right. I think you cross the line when you officially announce head money for your neighboring country’s foreign minister’s assassination. I think that’s a line we’re normalizing in crossing and the fact that we get to move on from that question is troubling for me when I’m engaging with Bloomberg which is an important international forum. As far as nuclear war no one has threatened nuclear war. A minister did say that Pakistan is a responsible nuclear country and should be treated as such.”
At a press conference in New York on December 16, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had responded to accusations that Pakistan had sheltered Osama bin Laden by pointing out that Modi, who is regarded as ‘butcher of Gujarat’ is still the Prime Minister of India:
“I would like to remind Mr Jaishankar that Osama bin Laden is dead, but the butcher of Gujarat lives, and he is the prime minister (of India).”
