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A day after Arvind Kejriwal accused a section of media of bias, I&B minister Manish Tewari today said Aam Admi Party had failed to take the heat of media scrutiny after it chose to form a government and had undermined its credibility with its 'cut and run' strategy.
He also took an aim at the BJP and its prime mnisterial candidate Narendra Modi, accusing them of being intolerant.
"The Aam Aadmi Party was enjoying the benign benefaction of the media till the time they chose to become a part of the government. And when the media put them under scrutiny, they were unable to take the heat," Tewari told reporters at the sidelines of 8th Indian Magazine Congress.
He said that if AAP had the conviction or the courage, they would have stayed on in the government in Delhi and delivered on their promises.
"So this whole strategy of cut and run, of not taking responsibility, of shirking responsibility when it is given to them in order to fulfil their commitments is something which has played out so magnificently in the media space that today their entire credibility stands undermined," Tewari said.
The Minister was asked to respond to claims made by AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal that a section of media has been told to cover Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi and "defame" him.
Earlier in his speech at the event, Tewari said the ability to take criticism did not come easily to his party's opponents.
He asked those present to introspect whether the next five or ten years are going to be safe and secure for fundamental freedoms of speech and expression.
"The reason I say this is not because there is a certain genocide or pogrom which plays on mind," Tewari said apparently referring to the Gujarat riots and added that what really troubled him is the "continuing manifestation of that intolerance as it plays out on a day to day basis."
He said that farmers from Punjab who had settled in Gujarat were being hounded out of from there and accused the Modi of "hypocrisy" by trying to push the blame on to his officers.
