Talking to newspersons at the Vadodara Airport on his way to Bharuch on Wednesday morning, he accused the Keshubhai Patel government of ``shielding and encouraging'' those behind the assault on minorities. Even Prime Minister Vajpayee, instead of censuring the Gujarat government, gave a clean chit to it during his visit to the Dangs district, he claimed.

Expressing concern over the sense of insecurity prevailing among minorities in Gujarat -- the land of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel -- Scindia claimed, ``There is no semblance of law and order in the State and law and order machinery has completely failed''.

According to Scindia, if Bihar could be placed under Central rule because of some incidents of violence, the Gujarat Government too should have been dismissed by applying the same yardstick. Claiming that incidents of crime in Bihar were lesser than in Gujarat, he said, while Bihar was number 10 in the list of states with the highest crime rate, Gujarat stood at number four.

Predicting the BJP government's fall, Scindia said that his party was completely prepared to form the government at Centre whenever the situation would demand.

According to him, the BJP's coalition partners were fed up the Vajpayee government's style of functioning and it was only a matter of time when they would say good-bye to their bonhomie with the Hindutva party.

``Internal squabbles among various constituents of the coalition has exacerbated to such an extent that there is no consensus among them on any issues,'' he claimed.

Scindia is currently on a party-strengthening tour of Gujarat. While he addressed a public meeting in Bharuch on Wednesday, a number of public meetings have been organised at other places as well.