He could have said things in a better way, but he represents a desperate party. The Congress is losing the plot in the run-up to the elections.

Someone must remind Sushilkumar Shinde that he is the Home Minister of the country, not the minister in charge of a particular community.

He needs reminding because he never fails to learn from his mistakes. His letter asking all chief ministers to ensure that no innocent Muslim youth is wrongfully detained in terror cases smacks of a political opportunism.

It adds credence to the suspicion that the government is trying to communalise the social environment before the 2014 general elections by adopting a blatantly partisan approach.

There is no denying the communal malice in the treatment of terror cases by a large section of our law enforcing agencies. Arrest them, frame them, damn them and don’t worry about the courts. This has largely been the approach of the police towards the Muslims.

The low conviction rate in such cases - about 10 percent - only reinforces that point. The police ‘sources’ come up with impressive, nearly believable stories about terror modules, sleeper cells, indoctrination, cross-border machinations and what not after every incident of terror in the country. Ever wondered why the stories, popular in the media, hardly stand up in courts?

But communal prejudice among a section of the policemen is only part of the story. Shinde, an ex-cop himself, must be aware that the real problem is poor crime detection, stemming from the lack of basic skills. There are weaknesses in gathering and processing evidence. Witnesses go hostile in a majority of cases and there’s clear lack of knowledge of the law among investigating officers. Good stories before the media are only a cover-up exercise designed to please the public. They provide a breather to the police, but hardly serve the cause of justice.

Not long ago, the Supreme Court of India expressed exasperation at the abysmal conviction rate in rape cases. “What is wrong with the system? Why are 90 percent of rape cases ending in acquittals? a bench said. As many as 63 percent of people charged with corruption were acquitted last year and just about 28 percent of cases in the country end up in conviction. The dismal numbers mean the policing system is working to the detriment of the innocent citizens. It is creating a large number of victims and not all of them are Muslims.

Was Shinde’s letter deliberate? Couldn’t he have stopped at saying, “...The government is committed to its core principle of combating terrorism in every form and manifestation... It has to ensure that no innocent person is subjected to undue harassment”? That could have delivered the message he wanted to convey well. But he sought to bring in the minority matter. In fact, that was the point raised by BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy.

“Has our Home Minister forgotten the oath that he took where he promised to protect citizens from all religions? Then why did he have to say Muslim youths?” Rudy said, adding it would have been better if Shinde had said ‘innocent Indian youths’ instead of ‘innocent Muslim youths’.

He could have said things in a better way, but he represents a desperate party. The Congress is losing the plot in the run-up to the elections.

While the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has started cleverly positioning himself as a mainstream, non-partisan leader by eschewing any reference to communal issues or anything contentious in his speeches across the country, gaining popularity in the process, it serves the Congress’ purpose to pin him and his party down to a communal - read anti-Muslim - position. Controversies of this nature are par for the course in this strategy.

The fact is the party does not seem to be capable of think of anything better at this point. Given the perverse nature of our politics, it does not surprise though.

But Shinde must decide whether he wants to be the home minister for the minorities or the entire country. If he is serious, he should show some urgency in tackling the crippling inefficiency in the police force.