Fear is the key: Bajaj Auto MD Rajiv Bajaj blames ‘fear’ as an obstacle to unlocking

Industrialist Rajiv Bajaj was warned by friends against speaking with Rahul Gandhi. In a conversation between the two, released on Thursday, Bajaj lamented the fear that pervades in the country and blamed it for the current logjam.

Disproportionate fear is making it difficult for the economy to open up, he said. He had seen senior citizens being caned by the police for not having masks while on morning walks. The same policemen had routinely ignored people riding motorcycles without helmets.

Investment will follow because of confidence and enthusiasm among the people, whose mood needs to be lifted and stimulus given to boost demand, he said.

Here are the key points the industrialist made on ‘fear’, lockdown and the efforts to unlock:

1. Narayan Murthi ji always says, when in doubt always disclose. I think we have fallen very short of disclosing- facts, logic and the truth. And this has then got amplified and instilled such an enormous fear in people that people seem to think that the contagion is equal to a contagious cancer or something. And now to change the mind of people and bring them back on board, and make them comfortable with the thought of living with the virus, which seems to be the new narrative coming from the government now. It is going to take a long time.

2. …As opposed to TB, or pneumonia or diarrhoea that apparently kills 100,000 people, largely children, in India, here was a virus that struck in the heart of the developed world. When the rich and famous get affected, it always makes a bigger headline. As someone said in the very early days of this problem, 8000 kids die of starvation in Africa every single day. Who cares beyond a point in civil society, we are not even aware of this fact. I think primarily the sensation was because affluent people in developed countries were vulnerable and perhaps some people inferred that ‘inko aisa ho sakta hai to hum kahin ke nahi rahenge’

3. India is the capital of the world when it comes to fatalities from road accidents. Whatever be the causes, that is the net result. But maine aaj tak kabhi aisa nahi dekha jab log 30-40-50 tak ke log bina helmet ke riding kartein hain, toh police waley kya kartein hain. 99.9% of the time kuch nahi kartien hain.

On the other hand, kisi ne agar mask nahi pehna or someone steps out for a morning walk you are caning them, making them do exercises in the middle of the road to humiliate them. Aapne unke haat mein board laga diya ki main deshdrohi hoon , main gaddar hoon etc. Where is proportion in the way we are treating our own people. I am talking about examples that I have seen with my own eyes here. I have seen senior citizens being caned for simply stepping out to get some fresh air.

4. I shared with someone yesterday, that kal 12 baje, I’m speaking with Rahul. And the first reaction was, don’t do it. I said, but why not? ‘Mat karna, this can get you into trouble’. But I said, I may have said some things, perhaps a little too vehemently, but I’ve said it on NDTV, I’ve said it in the Economic Times paper, I’ve said it on Aaj Tak, I’ve said it on so many channels, so many media, so ab galti hai to galti ho chuki hai.

He said, ‘nahi, media me bolna ek baat hai but Rahul Gandhi se baatein karna ek dusra baat hai’. I pushed that actually a bit, I’ll tell you very candidly. I said, we are going to talk about business, economics, lockdown, what to do, how to move forward, technology, products, he loves motorcycles and so we’ll talk about motorcycles etc. Abhi ye baatein bhi nahi ho sakti hai kya?

So that person maintained, why, why take a risk?

Yes, that is the general ‘mahol’

5. Nobody will invest unless he does so with enthusiasm and confidence. So iss me toh koi doubt hai nahi. Ab saval ye uthta hai Hindustan me ki if 100 people are afraid to speak up, first point is perhaps 90 of them anyway have something to hide. See we must also accept that in the last few years, towards, I would say UPA2 and NDA1, lot of skeletons have come out of the cupboard also. So, businessmen are also not doohd ka dhula hua and so many examples we’ve seen of that, so maybe, my view is that a lot of people don’t speak, unlike, if I may say so, somebody like my father, simply because perhaps they can’t afford to speak. So, it may be fear, but the question is, fear of what?

6. There are people and I think highly of such people, who do not want to speak. Who simply do not want to because they cannot deal with the backlash that comes their way, you know, and a little bit I fall into that category.

You know, there is a reason I’m not on any social media and without naming a couple of channels I will say to you that even yesterday, I had an invite from the most prominent channel that is very pro govt, if I may say so, and I refuse to be on such channels because of the kind of stuff one hears on social media, the way one sees things conducted on such channels is deeply distressing to anybody who is even remotely sensitive. So, I think yes, in terms of being tolerant, in terms of being sensitive, I think, India needs to mend a couple of things.

7. I think the blame for this rests again with the kind of fear we created in the first place, you know, that infection= death. And today, as infections rise, people are still carrying that this thing, so I’m sorry I’m not answering your question directly, but I am really distressed because it is a herculean task to open.

8. I think that the first problem is to get this fear out of the minds of the people, there has to be a very clear aligned narrative, I would say from the PM because, right or wrong, when he says something people seem to follow. I think he needs to stand up and say to everyone that this is how we are going to move forward, it’s all under control, do not fear infections, almost nobody is dying, you know, and we have to move forward now…