Incidents of Maoist violence down: Shinde

“Let the court decide on it,” he said. On the Anti-Graft ordinance planned to be introduced, he said it was the promise given by AICC President Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to the country.

“We were eager to introduce the bill in Parliament, but the situation prevailing in the House prevented us from doing so. We will do whatever we can to do in this regard,” he said.

On his controversial remarks on the electronic media, Shinde said he never meant to offend journalists.

“There is no question of the dictatorial reign of Congress party. I have been in government for the last 40 years and I know how to behave with the media and journalists. I was talking about the social media,” he clarified.

Shinde had stoked a controversy on Sunday evening at a youth Congress event in Solapur in Maharashtra by threatening to “crush” the electronic media, alleging a section of it was unnecessarily provoking the Congress by indulging in “false propaganda” against it. He later did a U-turn, claiming he was referring to the social media and not journalists.

Earlier, inaugurating the first phase of the BSF campus at Chekkiad, he said the Centre had granted Rs 50 crore for the centre at Areekkarakunnu to train local youth recruited to BSF. A central school would also be set up there, he said.