New Delhi, June 4: Managing Director of Bajaj Auto Rajiv Bajaj on his discussion with Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Thursday stated that India made a mistake by looking at the western world to managed the COVID-19 crisis. Bajaj, during his video interaction with Gandhi, said that India should have looked towards countries in the East and then prepared its coronavirus lockdown.

Expressing his opinion on the the economic fallout of COVID-19 with Congress parliamentarian, Bajaj said, "I don’t understand that despite being an Asian country, we sought not to look at what was happening in the East. We looked at the US, France, Italy, the UK etc. This is not a right benchmark in any sense." Rahul Gandhi Talk Show: Congress MP Asks Renowned Health Professionals on Deadline of Coronavirus Vaccine, Professor Ashish Jha Says 'Wait Until Next Year'.

Adding more, Bajaj said that India knew that there can’t be any medical infrastructure that can be adequate to combat something like COVID-19. Explaining the reason for this perception, Bajaj Auto's AMD said, "I think the perception is that if a developed country - like the US - or a developed continent like Europe can be affected by COVID-19, everyone is threatened."

He even compared the situation with African continent. Bajaj said, "When the rich and famous get affected, it makes headlines. Eight thousand children die of starvation in Africa every day, but who cares."

On the issue of lockdown, Gandhi said, "It’s quote surreal. I don’t think anyone imagined that the world would be locked down in this way. I don’t think that even during the World War, the world was locked down. I think even then things were open. it’s a unique and devastating phenomenon."

Asked what he would have done, Gandhi told Bajaj, "The central government has to act as an enabler. It should have moved the battle to chief ministers, but what happened in India is that the central government has backed off now. It’s too late now." Gandhi even added, "It’s a failed lockdown in India, it’s the only country where number of infections is increasing wheh lockdown is being eased."

Earlier, Rahul Gandhi held video interactions with public health expert Professor Ashish Jha and Professor Johan Geisecke of the Karolinska Institute from Sweden. Also,. he held similar video interactions with former Governor of Reserve Bank of India Raghuram Rajan and Nobel laureate Professor Abhijit Banerjee. During the interactions Gandhi had asked both of them the measure to revive the Indian economy post COVID-19 lockdown.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 04, 2020 12:28 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).