TV responsible for Mumbai violence: R R Patil

Refusing to accept that it was the failure of the state goverment machinery to anticipate the violent reaction by the Dalit population over the desecration of the statue of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister R R Patil today blamed the media for the violent reaction.

Addressing a press conference, Patil said: "One particular news channel continuously showed the footage of the Kanpur event when the fact was that the local administration had promptly replaced the desecrated statue with another one."

Patil went on to say that the situation had begun to normalise towards the later part of the day, and the wisdom of the repeated telecast of what happened earlier was questionable.

When asked about the mob of around two thousand, which gathered with fuel to set afire seven coaches of a train, Patil said: "In fact, because of intelligence inputs, the police managed to bring the situation under control quickly. Otherwise, it could have been much worse."