Ahmedabad: Industrialist Gautam Adani said India was “largely left alone” to tackle the virus. He also said that India’s fight against the Covid-19 pandemic can be a “lesson” to mitigate Black Swan events in the future.“India had nothing to do with the virus, but sustained some of the most drastic consequences and criticism on the global stage. There was not a single major international voice of understanding,” the Adani Group chairman said.
This happened even as India had the “gravitas not to criticise any country as they fought their own battles to control the virus”, he added.
“The fact that we have fought back should in itself be a lesson to all of us that there can be no better defence than Atma Nirbharta to mitigate future Black Swan events. We should never find ourselves in such a position ever again,” he said, while receiving the Ramkrishna Bajaj Memorial Global Award for outstanding contribution to industry, commerce and infrastructure development.
Pointing out that India would be the market that every country would try to tap into for the next two decades, Adani said, “In this euphoria, let us never forget that we were largely left alone to fight the pandemic.”
Talking about the criticism levelled against India, Adani said it cannot be at the cost of national dignity. “It (the criticism) cannot be at the cost of destroying the confidence of a nation. It cannot be about dividing the society; or else, we play right into the hands of those that do not want to see a resurgent India,” he added.
In July, while addressing his companies’ shareholders, Adani had cautioned people against falling prey to “voices that demoralise the nation”. He had also pointed out that “India should have done much better” while handling the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic.