Rahul Gandhi to discuss COVID-19 & its effect on Economy with Rajiv Bajaj; 'teaser out'

Rahul Gandhi's conversation with industrialist Rajiv Bajaj on the economic fallout of the Coronavirus crisis will be aired on Thursday. This is the latest in the series of deliberations the former Congress president is having with experts from various fields on the impact of the pandemic.

'You flattened the wrong curve'

In the teaser of the conversation released on various social media accounts of the party, Gandhi, citing experts, is seen talking about the fear of the Coronavirus disease. In the teaser, Managing Director of Bajaj Auto, Rajiv Bajaj, is seen talking about the effect of the lockdown on the economy.

"We tried to implement a hard lockdown which was still porous. So I think we have ended up with the worst of both worlds. 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," Bajaj says.

"But you have definitely decimated the economy. You flattened the wrong curve. It is not the infection curve, it is the GDP curve. This is what we have ended (up) with, the worst of both worlds," he says.

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"Tomorrow, Thursday, 4th June, 10 AM onwards, join my conversation with Mr Rajiv Bajaj on the COVID crisis, across all my social media platforms," Gandhi said on Twitter.

The first such dialogue was held on April 30 when Gandhi discussed the coronavirus pandemic and its economic implications with former Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan. He then held a conversation with Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee who had said India should come out with a large enough stimulus package to revive demand.

'Vaccine will be available by next year'

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The former Congress chief last week spoke to globally renowned public health experts -- Professor Ashish Jha of Harvard Global Health Institute and Swedish epidemiologist Johan Giesecke. Rajiv Bajaj had a few months earlier become perhaps the top industrialist to openly question the government on the state of the economy.

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On May 27, Rahul Gandhi asked Professor Jha in Hindi "Yeh bhaiya bataiye ki vaccine kab aayegi? (Brother, tell me when a vaccine will be developed?) to which the latter replied, "Three vaccines are showing promising results. These are from America, China and Oxford. For now, they all seem promising -- may be one of them or all turn out to be effective. I am confident that the vaccine will be available by next year. India has to prepare a plan on how to avail vaccines for its population."

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