Head Honcho

With assembly elections less than a year away, Qureshi thought it was time he became became Mulayam’s Muslim man to fit in the MY winning formula. The Danish cartoonist gave him just the opportunity to be so. ‘‘I said it in complete consciousness. All had been decided two days before the rally. I had to be the voice for lakhs of enraged Muslims over the blasphemous act of Prophet Mohammad’s cartoons,’’ Qureshi thunders, adding the ‘‘executor’’ would also be weighed in gold.

IN Meerut, Qureshi’s clout is enviable. An MLA from Meerut’s Kharkhauda constituency, he is Western UP’s leading meat trader, controlling several slaughter houses. His son Imran holds the lease for the slaughter house located in the town centre.

Qureshi’s elder brother Mohd Yusuf Qureshi has been state president of the All India Jamiatul Quresh (butchers’ association) for the last four years.

‘‘We have one lakh members in Meerut alone…there are 12 lakh members in UP who give a turnover of almost Rs 800 crore each year,’’ elder Qureshi says proudly. UP police says all these 12 lakh members swear by the Qureshi brothers. ‘‘They are a very close-knit unit. One call and allwill get together,’’ says a top Intelligence official in UP police. Little wonder then, he adds, that the minister could muster up a crowd of five lakh on a day’s call.

The family trade is also the primary reason for Qureshi’s public spatswith Azam Khan. Recently, Qureshi went to Khan’s native Rampur and accused him of‘‘interfering in his ministry’s affairs’’. He then shot off a complaint to the CM—Khan followed suit. Mulayam’s advice to both of them: sort out the matter amicably.

What preceded this war of words was Khan’s nod to a modern eco-friendly abbatoir out of Meerut’s city limits. Thiswould mean shutters down for theold slaughter house in the town for which Qureshi’s son Imran holds the lease which is to expire this March-end. SP insiders say Qureshi took this ‘‘personally’’ and decided he had to do something big to get back in reckoning.

The minister however claims his announcement had no political motive. ‘‘That was not a political stage. I don’t care if the government supports me or not…or if Amar Singh calls it an irresponsible statement. It was my call as a Muslim. The cartoonist is a villain, he must die,’’ Qureshi says, speaking on his newly-installed loudspeaker as yet another procession comes to his home in the Sarai Bahleem area to offer their contributions to the Rs 51-crore fund.

Despite the Muslim Personal Law Board’s stinging criticism of his statements, Qureshi thinks he has a political victory at hand, especially after Mulayam Singh Yadav’s cooperative statement—‘‘I agree with Qureshi’s anger’’.

The state home department too has categorically ruled out any criminal proceedings against Qureshi who now plans to tour the entire country with his bloodthirsty war cry.