Modi accuses Shinde of vote-bank politics

Launching a scathing attack in his 45-minute speech in Panaji, Mr Modi said, "The Home Minister is writing to chief minsters to ensure that members of a particular community are not arrested. On the basis of religion, injustice should not be done to anybody. If one is innocent he or she must be free but this must be uniformly applied."

As the lakh strong crowd roared in approval, Modi offered this piece of advice for Mr Shinde: "Law and order is a state subject. Sitting in Delhi do not tutor states on law and order. This is against federal structure."

In a letter that has generated a lot of controversy, Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde on Friday asked all state chief ministers to be "careful" while arresting minorities. The home minister wrote to state chief ministers on detention procedures, asking them to form a panel to review cases of people jailed without trial.

"Release minority youths if they are illegally detained," Mr Shinde had written. He also made a veiled reference to Jayanthi Natarajan's removal from the Environment Ministry, saying he had heard for the first time of a "Jayanthi tax", apparently referring to swirling allegations during her tenure.