Media is my friend, says Shinde

In the soup over his remark about “crushing” electronic media, Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde went on the defensive, claiming he had referred to the social media and that “media is my friend”.

“Electronic media means social media. I have very good relations with the press in my last 40 years. How can I (make such comments)... Recorded speech is with me... Media is my friend,” he said here on Monday night.

Shinde, who had stoked a controversy on Sunday evening by threatening to “crush” the electronic media, a section of which he alleged was engaging in “false propaganda”, said, “I was referring to social media and the violence incited against students from the northeast in Hyderabad and Karnataka. My comments were not about journalism.”
Shinde’s outburst came at a Youth Congress event.

Shinde, a Lok Sabha MP from Solapur, alleged that since the last four months a section of the electronic media was “manipulating” news about him and his party.

“What is happening in the electronic media largely I am aware of it. In the last four months there have been efforts by the media to provoke us (Congress). We will crush such elements in the electronic media, which are indulging in false propaganda, if it does not stop,” he was shown as saying in footage aired by news channels on Tuesday.