Not electronic, Sushilkumar Shinde now blames ‘social media’

Mumbai: A day after he threatened to “crush” electronic media for “spreading misinformation about the Congress”, Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde has a tried a face-saver by clarifying that his angst was against social media.

“I have had a very cordial relationship with the media for the last many years. It is my friend,” Shinde told a television channel.

At a function in his hometown Solapur on Monday, the home minister had said the electronic media was working against the Congress and carrying out a propaganda against it. “Youngsters should be aware of this propaganda of electronic media. Since I have the intelligence department with me, now I know the source of this propaganda. We have covertly put a stop to it,” he said.

Mr Shinde also added that the electronic media indulging in propaganda would be crushed. He also accused the media of causing communal riots. Further preaching the media on its responsibility, the home minister said, “Media should do good work for society. Nobody will stop them in that. In fact, such work will be praised. But to defame somebody for vote bank politics, giving wrong information about an incident and disturbing harmony in the society will be never tolerated by the people of this country.” The Home Minister also left no one guessing when he said that he had got inputs from intelligence agencies about a section of the media. "I have the intelligence department under me. I know who is doing such things. I know what is happening. Some forces are behind this," he added but did not elaborate. Shinde's remarks came against the backdrop of a series of opinion polls in the national and regional media which predicted a poor showing for the Congress in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls while forecasting a big win for BJP under Narendra Modi.

This is not the first time when Mr Shinde has landed himself in a controversy. In the past, his comments that people will forget coal scam the way they forgot about the Bofors scam were also criticised by the social activists and political opponents. The Action Committee against Attacks on Journalists condemned Mr Shinde for his remark. Its convenor S.M. Deshmukh demanded an apology.