Rahul Bajaj is the chairman of the Bajaj Group. In a recent Economic Times Conclave, he has said that the present government isn’t tolerant to criticism. He directed this to Union home minister Amit Shah. He also said that the people of India are scared to raise their voice against the Narendra Modi government, lest they should face tremendous backlash. This was also supported by Biocon CMD Kiran Mazumdar Shaw. This is extremely ironic in itself. Every day, on live television, the government is criticised by academicians, common people, anchors and experts alike.

 

He himself confessed that he is extremely close to the Nehru-Gandhi clan and him blaming the home minister Shah and the NDA government for creating an ‘atmosphere of fear and terror’ where people are scared to even express their opinions, is nothing but him voicing his preference of a political party.

Shah replied correctly that no one under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ever been penalised for criticising, unlike the previous governments. In fact, all newspaper articles and opinion pieces have always been overtly critical of PM Modi. The funny part is when Shah said that Bajaj being able to express his thoughts so openly to him in an open forum shows that no such ‘atmosphere of fear exists’ and Bajaj himself clapped to this from his seat!

In all other previous governments, disagreement with the people in power would prove detrimental for businessmen and their businesses would surely bear the brunt of this. It was the self-proclaimed first family of the Indian politics who were responsible for creating truly what could be called the ‘atmosphere of fear’. They could not tolerate any disagreement by even those who were close to them. Bajaj should personally be very well aware of this as his family too faced this during the emergency. Today the term ‘atmosphere of fear’ is being used very loosely but it is important for us to remember those times where this term was existing in its literal sense.

About Abhinav Khare

Abhinav Khare is the CEO of Asianet News Network and also the host of a daily show named Deep Dive with AK. He has a lifetime collection of books and gadgets and has already pinged more than hundred cities around the globe. 

He is a tech entrepreneur, who is passionate about policy, technology, economy and philosophy from ancient India. He earned an MS Engineering from the ETH Zurich and an MBA Finance from the London Business School.