New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said although coronavirus has done a lot of damage, it has also taught India a lesson: that there is no alternative to self-reliance in all matters.
Interacting with representatives of village panchayats from across India on National Panchayati Raj Day through a video conference, he said self-reliance has turned out to be the biggest lesson from pandemic.
“It is only in difficult times like this that our real strength is tested.”
Modi complimented the panchayat leaders for describing social distancing in simple words like “Do Gaz ki Doori” (keep a distance of two yards) to make it easily intelligible to the people.
Modi said the pandemic has thrown up new challenges which the country never faced before, but it also made people learn new things.
India is under an extended nationwide lockdown, from March 25, to contain the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which spreads mainly through respiratory droplets and causes a potentially fatal disease now known as Covid-19.
More than 23,000 people have been infected in India so far, and 718 have died, according to central health ministry data.
But nearly 80% of the infected people have also recovered without hospital treatment, according to the World Health Organisation More than 4,700 people have recovered in India.