Rahul Bajaj takes on Amit Shah, says industrialists live in fear can’t criticise Modi

Kolkata: Union Home Minister Amit Shah, on November 29, said no one has to be afraid to criticise the Modi government. He made these remarks while speaking at a private event in Mumbai, organised by Economic Times. At the venue, industrialist Rahul Bajaj told Shah that people are afraid of criticising the Narendra Modi government because of the repercussions.

Rahul prefaced his remarks by saying that “you are doing good work” and went on to tell the Home Minister “if we criticise you, there is no confidence that you will appreciate it”.

A video of this conversation went viral on social media where Rahul stood up to talk about the current atmosphere. The industrialist noted that the present scenario was not present during the second term of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA). He also said that we could criticise anyone we wanted, during the UPA government’s regime.

This video has also led to the industrialist gaining popularity on Twitter. Rahul mentions that this atmosphere is “certainly on our minds”. He says, “Nobody will say, our industrial friends will not say it, but I will. An environment should be created. You are doing good work, but if we criticise you, then there is no surety that you will appreciate it. I may be wrong, but we all feel it…”

He added that during the UPA 2 regime, “we could abuse anyone…”

However, the Home Minister denied these allegations and said, “No need to fear about anything. The Modi government has been continuously criticised in the media. However, if you say that there is such an environment, we need to work to improve this.”

The Congress commended the Rahul Bajaj’s remarks, while Amit Malviya, BJP’s in-charge of national IT cell, tweeted that Rahul Bajaj being able to speak his mind showed that the Modi government was in fact open to criticism.