One of the country’s outspoken industrialists, Rahul Bajaj doesn’t hold any punches when it comes to voicing opinions on national issues. The Bajaj Group chairman on Saturday said that people in the country are afraid of criticizing the Narendra Modi government at the Centre and do not have the confidence that the government will appreciate any criticism.
Bajaj’s comment came a day after India’s second quarter gross domestic product (GDP) slipped to 4.5 percent, the lowest in at least six-and-half years.
In his remark on the government, Bajaj also raised the issue of Bhopal MP Pragya Singh Thakur’s controversial comment on Wednesday praising Nathuram Godse, the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi. “Is there a doubt who shot Gandhi?… I don’t know,” Bajaj said.
Thakur, the Bhopal MP who is an accused in the Malegaon blast case, was subsequently removed from the consultative committee on defence.
However, Bajaj's pronouncements are not a new phenomenon. He has always been vocal on issues notwithstanding the government in power. Here are three instances when the Bajaj Group chairman spoke his mind:
Bajaj on demonetisation
At Bajaj Auto’s annual general meeting in Pune in July 2017, eight months after Modi’s declaration of demonetising the two highest value bank notes, which accounted for about 86 percent of the national currency in circulation, Bajaj said that he failed to see any positives from the move.
“It is questionable if it
“Demonetisation was a favourite
Bajaj on economic slowdown
Bajaj has also been critical of the economic downturn in the country. There has been a consistent drop in the GDP over the past few quarters and the Bajaj Auto chairman in the company’s 2019 AGM said that despite the government’s upbeat stance, the slowdown was real.
“The government may or may not be saying this, but there are clearcut markings from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, which show a decrease in growth in the last three to four year,” he was quoted as saying by Moneycontrol.
“Like any government, they would like to show a happy face, but the reality is a reality,” he added.
Bajaj on economic slowdown under UPA
The Harvard Business School alumnus was equally scathing in his criticism of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), which was in power from 2004 to 2014, when it came to its economic policies. In June 2013, he berated the Congress-led government for the state of Indian economy.
“Instead of focusing on highways, power, rail, ports and IT networks that are critical for sustained growth, we steadily raised the nation’s fiscal deficit to finance consumption-based subsidies and handouts,” he was quoted as saying by the Hindu Business Line.
“Added to these were long bouts of inaction and uncertainty in governance, leading to a crisis in the power sector, lack of inter-ministerial clearances of key projects and an unfortunate reversal of a Supreme Court verdict through retrospective tax amendments. The outcome: fall in investment and overall bearish expectations leading to steady reduction in GDP growth,” Bajaj lamented.
“Even Indonesia has grown faster than us in the last five quarters, posting 6.1 per cent growth in October-December 2012,” he added.
First Published: Dec 1, 2019 4:50 PM IST
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