A ‘draconian’ but ‘porous’ lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19 ended up ‘flattening the wrong curve’ and left the country with the worst of both worlds, industrialist Rajiv Bajaj told Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a video interaction.

‘On one hand, a porous lockdown makes sure that the virus will still exist and as you said, it is still waiting to hit you when you will unlock. So, you have not solved that problem,’ Managing Director of Bajaj Auto said.

‘But you have definitely decimated the economy. You flattened the wrong curve. It is not the infection curve, it is the GDP curve,’ Bajaj said.

‘And to the best of my knowledge, this has not happened anywhere in the world. To physically constrain yourself to your home and see absolutely no one,’ the industrialist claimed. He said that the world had not seen such lockdowns even during World War II.

Commenting on the lockdown in India, he said: ‘We are not seeing a smooth, concerted, rhythmic movement towards unlocking. Unfortunately, India not only looked west, it went to the wild west. I think we stayed more towards the impervious side.’

Bajaj urged the government to offer stimulus to create demand, citing examples of Japan and the US, where each individual was offered $1,000. The government was not going in for massive injection of cash, he added.

The industrialist called India’s lockdown strategy a ‘failed’ one and claimed that the country was opening up when infections were increasing.

Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi has held a series of interactions with several economists and experts, since the country went into a lockdown.

Speaking to the industrialist, Gandhi also said that a lockdown like the one implemented in India ‘brings the fear of death in the mind of people’.

‘Whoever is going to invest in India is going to invest not because of your image, they are going to invest because of what you are and what you have… So the first logic has to be, defend that economy,’ the Congress MP said, adding ‘If you don’t have an economy left, there is nothing.’

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