CM Bhupesh Baghel takes a dig at Modi for 'putting journos in jail'

RAIPUR: When PM Narendra Modi is sending journalists to jail, there's reason for fear, chief minister Bhupesh Baghel said on Wednesday.
Expressing his outrage at relentless income-tax/Enforcement Directorate action in the state, he remarked that central agency personnel are "all over the place, even more than stray dogs and cats".
On Tuesday, PM Modi had said in Bastar that none of the Congress leaders and ministers were present at inauguration of one of the biggest steel plants of Nagarnar, because they were "afraid to make eye contact with him as they indulged in corruption".
On Wednesday, when reporters asked him about the PM's statement, Baghel mockingly said: "Of course, there is fear. Modi ji is sending even journalists to jail, it's obvious that people would be afraid of them. Look around, the ED and I-T people are all around us, more than dogs and cats. We will have to fear them because once sent to jail, there is no bail."
"We are not against the Nagarnar steel plant's inauguration, but was the plant put into disinvestment list even before its commissioning? Its name on the list indicates that Modi ji is intending to privatize it," the CM said, calling on the PM to "assure that Nagarnar plant will not be given to private hands".
Congress had called a peaceful bandh on Wednesday on this issue. "We raised this matter earlier also but it was ignored," CM said.
Pointing out that former Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh also used to say that the plant shouldn't be given to private hands, Baghel said that the PM should hear the voice of common public and people of their own party.
"If the Centre or NMDC is unable to operate the Nagarnar plant with an intention to give it to private hands, then they should consider giving it to the state government so that the state utilizes its own people and engineers' skills and hard work," CM said.
Extending his greetings on the inauguration of the steel plant, Baghel said, "We are against privatisation and continue to fight until it stops." TNN