"If I shriek and shout, if I abuse people, if I frighten you or if I misuse law, will I become a strong Home Minister?"

This was Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil's [Images] response when he was asked during an interview to ETV to comment why he was perceived as a weak home minister.

Patil, who has come under flak for the way internal security has been handled, described terrorists as "misguided brothers" and said everybody was the fruit from the same seed.

"Some brothers are misguided and some reformed. Some are cunning and some simple," he said.

The Home Minister had raised eyebrows for changing three sets of clothes on the night of Delhi [Images] blasts earlier this month.

He had reacted to such reports saying "Main so gaya, main patte khel raha hoon, main daru peeke baitha hoon, main dance club jaata hoon toh aap mujhe dosh dijiye (Blame me if I am sleeping (on the job), playing cards, drinking and whiling away time and frequenting dance clubs)".

Patil, in the course of the interview, wondered how he could be dubbed as a weak home minister when during his tenure in North Block the number of incidents and casualties in terrorist acts and other violence have come down and law and order has improved.

"Figures will bear testimony to what I am saying but still I am termed as weak," he said. Patil said while 36,259 incidents occurred during the NDA regime, during the UPA rule 24,967 cases were reported -- showing a decline by over 11,000 cases. Likewise, 11,714 people were killed during the NDA rule, compared to 6,636 deaths during his time.

"Still if someone says that situation is bad, then one has to see to what extent it is correct," he said and added that if one described the situation as bad, he or she was just trying to create fear psychosis in the minds of people.

Contrary to suggestions for a tough anti-terror law, he said that existing laws were enough to combat the menace and if "slight" amendments were needed, it would be definitely done.

Asked to justify his remark that he was in the post as long as his leader had confidence in him, Patil shot back saying "where is the need to ask this question. What should I do if not pay respect to my leader?"

On demands made by RJD and SP leaders Lalu Prasad and Mulayam Singh Yadav [Images] for a SIMI-type ban on RSS, he said it would have to be seen whether it was necessary to do it.

"If some organisation was inciting people and creating divisions among them, then whatever needful will be done," he said.