Cases soar; Bajaj calls lockdown ‘draconian’

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, June 4

On a day when India’s Covid-19 load saw a record daily surge of 9,304 cases, industrialist Rajiv Bajaj assailed the Centre over the manner in which the lockdown had been imposed, calling it “draconian”.

In a video conversation with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the MD of Bajaj Auto said the lockdown ensured India “flattened the GDP curve instead of the Covid curve and got the worst of both worlds”.

He said the lockdown was more along the lines of the western nations than the eastern ones such as Japan and Singapore, which settled for softer versions of the shutdown to let parts of their economies function.

Bajaj also noted that reopening the economy was tough and Prime Minister Narendra Modi would have to use a “clear narrative” to inspire confidence in the people and bring them out of fear.

Meanwhile, the disease load rose to 2,16,919 with 1,04,106 recoveries and 6,075 deaths today, while the recovery rate was 47.99 per cent and fatality rate 2.8 per cent.