Mumbai: Under fire from the media, which has predicted a debacle for the Congress, Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Monday accused the electronic media of spreading misinformation and threatened to “crush” it.
He was speaking at a function in his hometown Solapur. The home minister said that 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 will 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.” 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.
