NDTV anchor Sreenivasan Jain interviewed HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh recently in which the ‘journalist’ attempted to solicit a statement against the NDA Government at the center in his ongoing campaign against Prime Minister Modi. However, he was sorely disappointed.
In one of the clips from the interview that is going viral, Sreenivasan Jain moans the ‘stifling of dissent’. Deepak Parekh pointed out that the opposition parties in the country are failing to perform their democratic duties properly. Jain agreed with him on the matter but then went on to bemoan the ‘worries’ about stifling of criticism and dissent. It was then that he had to suffer a major embarrassment.
#NDTVExclusive | "In a democracy, you need a strong opposition – we do not have a strong opposition. And that is the worrying factor": Deepak Parekh, Chairman, HDFC, on the state of democracy in India pic.twitter.com/mHPSG20lZi
— NDTV (@ndtv) December 25, 2020
Deepak Parekh responded, “I think it is overstated and overemphasized or whatever. When we have meetings with the Prime Minister or recently, the Prime Minister had a meeting with sovereign wealth funds and some of us were asked to speak, and that time I think they are quite open to listen to things. I don’t think they are averse to listening.”
And that is how another attempt to drag an adverse comment against the central government by Lutyens journalists bit the dust. Earlier, Sreenivasan Jain had suffered an embarrassment after getting into an argument with investor and businessman Rakesh Jhunjhunwala.
He accused Jhunjhunwala of being biased in favour of Narendra Modi to which the bussinessman responded, “I am a fan of Mr. Modi – This is a well-known fact. As an Indian, I have a right to my political choices… But, I find you prejudiced. I find NDTV prejudiced against the government.” “Well, I am a political animal. The press is not a political animal. You are supposed to be unprejudiced,” he added.
Deepak Parekh praises Narendra Modi
Deepak Parekh was all praise for the reforms implemented by the central government since the pandemic began. He was supportive of the government’s moves on agricultural reforms and labour reforms. The HDFC Chairman also said that the worst is behind us in terms of the economy and a recovery is being witnessed across multiple sectors.
The HDFC Chairman also said that he is optimistic about the situation and he believes things will start getting much better very soon. He was also critical of The Economist which had recently claimed that democracy is facing a ‘downturn’, in the words of Sreenivasan Jain, in India and the rest of the world.
“It is certainly worrying what we are seeing but I will not put too much emphasis or stress on The Economist. I have not seen a single positive article written by Economist in the past 30 years. So I would not take Economist as a guiding principle or someone who said that because they have always been anti-India, irrespective of the government,” he said.
