By News18,Oindrila Mukherjee

Copyright news18

Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the Narendra Modi-led government’s toughest challenge was Covid-19, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership united India in its fight against the virus.
Shah, in an exclusive interview to Network18 Group Editor-in-Chief Rahul Joshi, said the world has accepted that India’s Covid management was the best.
“…the toughest circumstance we faced – in which, I believe, India was the most successful under Modi ji’s leadership – was the coronavirus pandemic. Today, the whole world accepts that India’s Covid management was the best,” Shah told News18.
He said while in many countries, the governments fought against the virus, in India, the central and state governments as well as the public unitedly fought Covid. He said this happened because Modi was there to boost morale even though he was ridiculed and faced a lot of criticism for his measures.
“When you analyse the reasons behind this, it is clear that in many countries, it was the government’s fight against coronavirus but, in India, central and state governments as well as the public unitedly fought the virus. And to boost morale, Modi ji had to face a lot of criticism for his measures,” he said. “Some banging plates won’t stop coronavirus, others said lighting lamps won’t help, there were those who said what will come of enforcing a public curfew.”
The Union minister said these measures, however, helped each Indian to create a mindset to unitedly fight the virus.
“And then to be the first to form the vaccination team and encourage it at every stage; using technology, we vaccinated 1.4 billion people (140 crore) along with issuing receipts for it, was a massive task. When the second wave of coronavirus hit, there was a shortage of oxygen in the country; we managed to procure it from around the world and supplied it across the country to those who needed it,” he said.
Shah further said the Prime Minister deserves “full credit” for this “major leadership success” because he was able to mobilise the country’s entire system.
“…To mobilise the country’s entire system, from Parliament to panchayats, and take 1.4 billion people together in that fight – that, I believe, is a major leadership success and Modi ji deserves full credit for it,” he added.