BJP today hit out at Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde for his alleged outburst against the media, saying it reflected the "dictatorial DNA" of Congress and the panic within the party over the rise of the main opposition ahead of Lok Sabha polls.
"It reflects the dictatorial DNA of Congress. Congress is democratic only when it has a comfortable majority. The moment it sees its inevitable defeat, it goes back to its basic DNA of dictatorship. This is what precisely happened in 1975," said BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar.
He said the outburst shows the panic in Congress over the groundswell of support for the Narendra Modi-led BJP.
"The writing on the wall is clear. Therefore Congress is now threatening the media," he said.
Shinde had sparked a controversy on Sunday by allegedly threatening to "crush" the electronic media after accusing a section of it of unnecessarily provoking the Congress by engaging in "false propaganda" against the party.
But the ruling party today tried to play down the issue and said it had never attempted to run down the media.
I&B Minister Manish Tewari contended that it had never been the intention of his party to muzzle the freedom of press.
"Let me unequivocally... Place it on record that over the past 10 years, whatever the criticism -- fair, unfair, charitable, uncharitable, at times completely malicious -- we have never tried to either run the media down or shoot the messenger," he said.
Meanwhile, attacking Shinde, BJP's Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the alleged remarks were unbecoming of someone who held a position of responsibility in the government.
"I condemn it very strongly... You are the Home Minister of India, you are sitting on a responsible chair. How can you talk like this? Freedom of the press is integral to democracy. We are proud of Indian media," he said.
