From The Editor’s Desk: In a shameless display of appeasement politics, Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde wrote a letter to all Chief Ministers, asking them to ensure that no innocent Muslim youth are wrongfully detained. He argued his case, saying the centre has been receiving reports of alleged harassment of Muslim youths by various law enforcement agencies. And, two days later, seven dreaded SIMI activists (all Muslims) escaped from a prison in Madhya Pradesh.

It’s really shocking that Mr. Shinde did not talk about “innocent youths”. Rather, he tried to emphasis on the word ‘Muslims’, with a message that he and his party are the saviours of minorities in the country. Shinde’s letter came in the wake of a letter written by Minority affairs minister K Rahman Khan to the Home Minister, expressing concerns over “wrong arrests” of Muslim youths in different parts of the country in terror cases. The BJP was quick to lambast Shinde and demanded his resignation.

According to Prison Statistics 2012 in India, over 2,54,000 people are undergoing trial in India. And, 71.4 per cent of them are Hindus. Only 17.8 per cent of them are Muslims. Similarly, 62.6 per cent detainees across the country are Hindus, while 28.3 per cent are Muslims. If we look at the convicted people, 69.9 per cent convicts are Hindus, while 21 per cent are Muslims.

It can be recalled that Sushil Shinde was the same person, who talked about ‘Hindu Terrorism’ and ‘Terror Camps run by BJP and RSS’ and then had to eat the humble pie after his statement put the Congress Party on defensive. The BJP was probably right in asking him to recall his oath of office in which one takes the pledge of serving without any bias to any religion, caste or creed.  Shinde must answer why he talks about Muslims only to create a religious divide!