A provincial minister in India has sparked a scandal after suggesting to bureaucrats that they could “steal a little” if they performed well in their duties

Shivpal Singh Yadav, in charge of housing and construction in northern Uttar Pradesh state, on Friday hastily withdrew the offer he made a day earlier during a meeting with government employees which was also attended by journalists.

Yadav is an uncle to the state chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, whose Samajwadi Party stormed into power on an anti-graft platform in elections held in graft-ridden Uttar Pradesh in March.

“If you work hard, you can steal a little, but don’t behave like bandits,” the Press Trust of India quoted Yadav as saying.

The comments drew flak from political opponents, prompting Yadav to retract his offer and accuse journalists of sneaking into the gathering.

“I have taken back those words,” he told reporters in Lucknow on Friday. “Why are you raking it up?,” he said.

The offer came a month after his nephew warned about corruption in the overwhelming poor and under-developed state of nearly 200 million people, a population larger than Brazil’s.

Corruption has been the biggest political issues in India over the last two years, with a string of scandals hitting the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and sparking popular protest movements.

Activist Anna Hazare, who models himself on independence hero Mahatma Gandhi, and famous TV yoga guru Baba Ramdev have led hundreds of thousands in protests against endemic bribe-taking and corruption in India.