Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde has clarified his statement about crushing the electronic media. Speaking to reporters at Sholapur in Maharashtra last night, the Home Minister said, he was speaking about the social media and not about journalism. Mr. Shinde clarified that he was referring to social media and the violence incited against students from the Northeast, in Hyderabad and Karnataka.

Shinde had on Sunday allegedly threatened to crush the electronic media, alleging a section of it was unnecessarily provoking the Congress by indulging in false propaganda against it. He was speaking at a Youth Congress event.

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.