The Bajaj Group chairman also raised the issue of lynchings and BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur's remarks praising Nathuram Godse in Parliament.
With Amit Shah and other top Central ministers sitting on the panel, industrialist Rahul Bajaj on Saturday said that while people could criticise the UPA-II government but there is no confidence that current regime would appreciate it if it is openly criticised.
The Bajaj Group chairman also raised the issue of lynchings and BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur's remarks praising Nathuram Godse in Parliament as he addressed Home Minister Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and Railways and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal.
“Nobody from our industrialist friends will speak, I will say that openly. But better replies will have to come, not just denial. An environment will have to be created… When UPA II was in power, we could criticise anyone… You (the government) are doing good work, but despite that we don’t have the confidence that you will appreciate if we criticise you openly,” Bajaj said at an event organised by The Economic Times in Mumbai.
Shah responded to Bajaj saying there was no need for anyone to fear and newspapers and columnists continue to write against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the NDA government.
In fact, the most stringent criticism had been directed against this regime, the BJP president said.
“Magar phir bhi aap jo keh rahe hain ki ek atmosphere banaa hai, hamein bhi atmosphere ko sudhaarne ka prayaas karna padega… but main itna zaroor kehna chaahta hoon ki kissi ko darne ki koi zaroorat nahi hai… Na koi daraana chaahta hai… Na kuchh aisa karaa hai jiske khilaaf koi bole to sarkar ko chinta hai… Most transparent way mein ye government chali hai, aur hamein kissi bhi prakaar ke virodh ka koi dar nahin hai, aur koi (virodh) karega bhi to uske merits dekh kar hum apne aap ko improve karne ka prayaas karenge (But even then, if you say that there is a certain kind of atmosphere, we will have to make efforts to improve the atmosphere. But I would like to say that there is no need for anybody to fear… No one wants to scare… and we have done nothing to be concerned about any criticism… The government has run in the most transparent way, and we have no fear of any kind of opposition, and if anyone does criticise, we will look at the merit of the same and make efforts to improve ourselves),” Shah was quoted as saying in reports.
Speaking on Sadhvi Pragya's remarks in the Lok Sabha, Mr Bajaj said, "Kisi ko bhi deshbhakt bolte hain, jinhone Gandhi ji (Mahatma Gandhi) ko shoot kiya... ya to koin doubt hai usmein. Pahle se bole the, ticket bhi diya. Jit gayin wo to thik hai. Wo aapke support se hi jiti hain. Unko koi janta nahi tha par ticket diya (They call deshbhakt, someone who shot Gandhiji. Either there is some doubt over it. She said that earlier as well, but got ticket. She won, that is all right, she only won because of your support, nobody knew her but she got ticket)."
On this, Shah said he and other senior BJP leaders including Defence Minister Rajnath Singh condemned Thakur's remarks while noting that there was some confusion over whether the Bhopal MP had meant Nathuram Godse or the revolutionary Udham Singh.
“Neither the BJP nor the government supports any such statement. We strongly condemn it,” Shah said, adding that the Thakur herself had apologised in the House.
Bringing up the issue of lack of convictions in lynching cases, Bajaj said it creates an environment of intolerance.
"It creates an environment of intolerance and we are scared. We don’t want to say certain things but we see that until now no one has been convicted," the 81-year-old industrialist said.
Responding, Shah said lynchings used to happen earlier too and the number was probably higher as he also denied the assertion that there have been no convictions.
“Lynching pehle bhi hota tha, aaj bhi hota hai — shaayad aaj pehle se kam hi hota hai… Par ye bhi theek nahin hai ki kissi ka conviction nahin hua hai. Lynching waale bahut saare cases chale our samaapt bhi ho gaye, sazaa bhi hui hai, par media mein chhapte nahin hain (Lynchings happened earlier too, and probably more than now… But it is not correct that there have been no convictions. Several cases of lynchings have been concluded and there have been punishments but the media does not publish them),” he said.
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