People are afraid to criticise the Centre, industrialist Rahul Bajaj tells Amit Shah

Home Minister Amit Shah claimed on Saturday that "no one needs to fear" criticising the Narendra Modi government. The senior BJP leader was speaking at a private event in Mumbai organised by business publication Economic Times when industrialist Rahul Bajaj told him that the people feared criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his administration for fear of reprisals. Mr Bajaj, who prefaced his remarks by saying "you are doing good work", told the Home Minister "...if we criticise you there is no confidence that you will appreciate that".

In a video that has since gone viral Mr Bajaj, dressed in a blue silk shirt and a dark brown Nehru jacket, stands up to talk about an "atmosphere" that was not present during the second term of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA); Mr Bajaj was also quoted as saying "UPA government mein kisi ko bhi gaali de sakte the (in the UPA government, we could criticise anyone we wanted to)".

"This atmosphere... it is certainly on our minds. Nobody will say...our industrialist friends will not say it. I will say that openly. An environment should be created. You are going good work but if we criticize you there is no confidence that you will appreciate that. I may be wrong. But we all feel that..." the businessman said, adding, "I can't speak for everybody... I shouldn't say this...".