Gandhinagar, Dec 25: Targetting the media again for what he called its campaign of rumour mongering and misleading people, a rattled Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today charged journalists with dividing the society on caste and religion lines and asked them to refrain from this. Modi, while addressing his maiden press conference here after becoming the Chief Minister for the second time, said "it is my fervent appeal to the media to put a halt to the campaign of dividing the five crore people of Gujarat in minorities or majorities."

A visibly agitated Modi made these remarks when asked by a scribe on "how his government will inculcate the feeling of security among minorities, who are still shuddering after three months of communal violence?". "When I talk about five crore Gujaratis, it includes everyone," he said.

Modi also charged the media with being instrumental in depicting the state as communal. Bureau Report