Rahul Bajaj: We are scared to criticise Modi govt

Industrialist, chairman of the Bajaj Group and former MP Rahul Bajaj reiterated on Sunday, December 1 what Manmohan Singh had said on Friday, November 29 that there was an atmosphere of fear in the country and that people were afraid to criticise the Narendra Modi government. People don’t have the confidence that criticism of the government will be appreciated and this had led to an atmosphere of fear, said the industrialist.

Addressing the audience at an event that included Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Railways and Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, Rahul Bajaj said: “Nobody from our industrialist friends will speak, I will say openly. An environment will have to be created. When UPA II was in power, we could criticise anyone. We don’t have the confidence that you will appreciate if we criticise you openly.”

Bajaj also talked about lynchings in India, saying an “intolerance ki hawaa” was sweeping the lands. “Lynchings create a hawaa, intolerance ki hawaa hai, hum darte hain… kuchh cheezon ko hum bolna nahin chahte hain par dekhte hain ki koi convict hi nahin hua abhi tak (Lynchings create an environment of intolerance and we get scared. We also see that no one has been convicted till now)”.

Bajaj also spoke about Pragya Singh Thakur, BJP MP from Bhopal and one of the main accused in the Malegaon terror attack. Bajaj criticised her remarks on calling Godse as a patriot and questioned appointment as member of the parliamentary committee on defence.