Manmohan Singh's reply to Narendra Modi's protest paper soon

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be sending a reply to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s letter in which the latter had protested against Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde’s directive on wrongful arrests of Muslim youth in terror cases.

ET has learnt that the home ministry is drafting the reply, which is expected to impress upon the Gujarat chief minister that “terror has no religion, colour or caste” and that the home minister’s letter to all chief ministers on September 30 last year had only asked states to ensure no member of the “minority” community was wrongfully implicated in terror cases, as per an official aware of the matter.

Modi had sent a strong letter to the prime minister on January 15 objecting to Shinde’s directives, and had said in his letter that Shinde’s suggestion marked an "unprecedented low" in the country and termed Shinde’s advice as a "callous and brazen attempt of vote-bank politics". Modi had also objected to Shinde’s remarks on January 10 that he would ask states to set up review committees to go into terror cases against minorities. The PM had forwarded Modi’s letter last month to Shinde and the home ministry has subsequently prepared a draft reply.