 Namaskar, aap sabka bahut-bahut svagat. I'd like to welcome all my friends for this Zoom Press conference, probably at least the first time I'm doing one. I'm going to be making some remarks today. And they should be taken in the spirit, not of criticism, but of constructive support and advice. We are in a very serious situation that is clear. And I think all political parties have to work together. And the people of India have to work together if we want to solve this problem and defeat this virus. Please feel free to ask your questions. Friends, I will start with the agencies. And then I will ask the rest of my friends. We have noted your questions. I'm starting with Shri Sanjeev Chopra of the PTI. Sanjeev, please unmute your mic and ask a question. Shri Sanjeev Chopra from PTI. Yeah, Rahulji, morning. Morning. Yeah, I can't see you though. Sanjeev, let me see if I can work this out. So the number is because large. So although everybody's name is appearing, but normally the image count is not coming. Because Sanjeev Chopra, you have found you. Yeah. Rahulji, you've said that India is nowhere in the game as far as testing for COVID is concerned. What do you have to say on the response of the government on testing so far? And you also suggest the joint panel of leaders, as you rightly said, that all parties and people have to get together to fight this, or of parliamentarians to suggest the way forward on issues relating to COVID response, both on the social and economic level. See, in order to answer your question on testing, I'll have to go into a bit more detail about the current situation. Before I start, I'd like to say that over the last couple of months, I've been speaking to large numbers of experts in India abroad, in government, outside government, who have a very good understanding of what is going on. So a lot of what I'm going to be saying is going to be based on these conversations. Now, the first thing to understand is that a lockdown is like a pause button. A lockdown is in no way a solution to the COVID virus. It is as if you've hit pause and stop the virus in its tracks until the lockdown. When we come out of the lockdown, the virus is going to start its work again. So it is very important that we have a strategy to come out of the lockdown. Now, what are the things that need to be put in place? The lockdown allows you the time and space to put in medical resources, to ramp up your testing ability, to prepare your hospitals, to get ventilators, to create the type of architecture that is required to fight the virus when it picks up again. So there is one misconception that I would like to clear up. In no way does a lockdown defeat the virus. It stops the virus for some time. Now, what is the real weapon against the virus? The biggest weapon. The biggest weapon is testing. Testing its scales so you know where the virus is moving and you can isolate the virus, you can fight the virus and you can target the virus. Now, I want to give you a few statistics on testing. I think our testing rate is 199 out of a million. And if you look at all the tests that we've done over the last 72 days, it works out to approximately an average of 350 tests per district. This is in no way enough to tell you how the virus is moving. So the central theme is if you want to fight the virus, you have to increase testing dramatically and your testing has to go from chasing the virus to moving ahead of the virus. Means you have to move into random testing and you have to start to preempt where the virus is moving. A lot of our testing is currently chasing the virus because we are identifying cases and then following the virus. With that type of testing, you will never be able to actually get a good image of what the virus is doing and where the virus is. So one advice to the government, and this is something that I've said and we've been saying, push testing aggressively, maximize testing and use testing strategically. Use testing to assist the states in their fight. Use testing not simply to track patients who are infected, but to create a map of India to see where the virus is moving, identify hotspots using testing. So I'm proposing scaling up testing and using testing strategically. And I'm saying that the government of India currently, the testing levels are too low and they're not using testing strategically. Thank you, Sanjeev Ji. Thank you, Rahul Ji. I'm going to go to the next question. Siddharth, A.N. 9 will give his question. Siddharth, unmute your mic. Sanjeev Bhai, mute your mic. Siddharth Ji, from A.N. 9. Good afternoon, Rahul Sir. Can we find you, Siddharth Ji, so that I can see? This is a bit complicated here. Siddharth Ji, the image is coming off. Sir, it says Siddharth A.N. 9. He's wearing a... Because there's a lot of people... Okay, Siddharth A.N. I found you. Siddharth Ji, go ahead. Sir, my question is that your party is saying that you were in time, the Congress and you are also being encouraged that you were in time, the government was in trouble. But you weren't ready. What you're saying today is not about criticism, but a suggestion. How do you see the preparedness of the government in regard to fighting against COVID-19, in regard to the economic conditions and the future economic challenges, how do you see the government's preparedness? You're an MP. You've been in a lot of business with MP-led funds. You've been in a lot of business with MP-led funds. But now MP-led has been free for two years. So, I'll ask you both the questions because tell me about the testing. To fight COVID-19, our main force is at state level and district level. The success in Kerala, the success in Wynard is basically the machinery of the district level. It's working effectively. So, my suggestion is that the fight against COVID-19 should be at the bottom up. And the state's chief ministers, the districts, should empower them. The role of the prime minister is to empower the army, to empower the forces, to send money to the states. As far as MP-led is concerned, it's not a major issue in this situation. It's not a major issue in this situation but a major issue in this situation is that we are fighting together. The assets we are using, the districts, states, our administration, we are effectively utilizing them. We are adequately utilizing the public. So, our focus should be on that. I said on the testing. Look, forget what happened. Because we have reached a level where this is an emergency situation. So, I don't want to say that I didn't do this, that I didn't do that. Whatever I did, whatever I didn't do, let's look ahead. And together, India should unite and fight against this. And this will benefit the country too. But my main suggestion, is that we should not use blunt instruments. We should work strategically in a nuanced way. If the idea is that the lockdown is over, then it's over. The lockdown is not over. It's postponed. So, use the resources effectively. Give the resources to the states. Give the GST to the states. Give the GST to the states. Give the GST to the state. Listen. Listen. Listen. Tell us a little bit about our people's social services. What about the project. So, I was talking about where you pay your shipping. Where anyone tells you fund. Yes. Sir, my question is that you had announced on the 12th. Even after that, the government could not take a step. So, you said that you will not say anything. But it seems that the package of 17,000 people is available. It is available to fight the coronavirus. The way money should be reached, the speed at which it should be reached, it is not reaching. I will give you two or three examples. To fight the coronavirus, you will have to do two or three strategic things. There is action on two flanks. One is healthcare medical, the other is economic. I will talk about economic sphere a little. Food shortage is coming. Food supply is available in Godam. You should provide food supply to poor people. There are many poor people who do not have ration cards. You should include them. So, prepare a safety net for food. Direct money. Put 20% in the bank account of the poor people. Preemptively. Because the poor people who are in weaker sections, who are manual labourers, if they face any problem, then preemptively prepare food net. Don't use the name of justice. But use the name of minimum financial net. Unemployment is coming. People will be unemployed. Who is the central worker? SMEs, small and medium industry. Prepare a defensive package for them. Prepare a protective package for them. There are companies that are connected. There are strategic companies. There can be big companies. Prepare protection for them. This is on the economic side. On the disease side, what will be your exit strategy after lockdown? What will be your testing strategy? What will be your medical strategy? How will you ramp up your PhDs and hospitals? Because you have to do it before the lockdown opens. Because after lockdown, the disease will be uptake. The disease will start growing. So you have to counteract it aggressively. So I am saying that this should not be a delayed action. This should be an immediate action. I am feeling very sad that the food supply we have in Gudaun has not reached people's hands. I am feeling a bit uncomfortable that the small and medium industries should know what is being done for them. Because this is a national issue. A security issue. Thank you, Mr. Haq. Please come to the news agency. Mr. Saeed, you will ask your question. We will come to different journalists. Mr. Saeed, please unmute your mic. Mr. Saeed. Mr. Saeed, please unmute your mic. Can I ask a question, sir? Sir, please unmute your mic. I will have to go like this. Yes, I have. Unmuted. No, you don't unmute your mic. Okay, right now. Saeed is not there, I think, sir. You can move on to the next person. Can we go to Sandeep Fukanji from the Hindu? Sandeep, please unmute your mic and ask. Sandeep Fukanji from the Hindu. Yeah, yeah. Go ahead. Mr. Gandhi, in your tweet sometime back and also in your letter to Prime Minister you had suggested that India should prepare an India-specific policy, keeping in mind the complexities of India. You also hinted at a partial lifting of the lockdown. Can you actually suggest more concretely what the government can do? Because from next Monday, they are anyways relaxing several industries from the 20th. So you have some concrete suggestions in mind to offer them? I think number one, it should be a strategic opening. So you open particular key areas. You use testing to identify, and this is where the point of ramping up testing is important. You use testing to identify dynamically which are the hotspots. And you clamp down on those hotspots. But you create two basic zones in India. A hotspot zone and a non-hotspot zone. And you use testing to identify the places which are becoming hotspots. So you make sure that if any zone is moving from a non-hotspot zone in terms of the disease, you immediately clamp down. So that would be how you would think about it. Because realize that at one level, when you lock people up, the disease gets locked up. When you open the door, the disease will come rushing out. So that was on the medical side. There is going to be a massive financial backlash that is going to come. You are going to see the first waves of unemployment. And then that will start to spiral. You will see massive pressure coming on our financial system. So you will have to set up structures and manage your funding so that you don't get caught. Suppose you spend all your money right now immediately. And then you have a financial crisis. Later in a few months, you've got a real problem. So you have to think strategically and you have to move strategically. Certainly you have to spend a significant portion of your money in protection of people. See, for us, life is the most important thing. And we cannot simply let our people be under these circumstances. So we have to protect human Indian life, human life. But we also have to make sure that we, in protecting them from the virus, that we don't destroy our economy completely. So it is a dynamic, constantly moving strategy. That is why I get worried when I see very blunt instruments. I would have liked a lot more power decentralized to the states. I would have liked a more detailed conversation between the states and the prime minister with regards to the strategy with the lockdown. But fine. I mean, there's a particular style that Modi has, which is fine. One can work around that style. Thank you. Sandeep ji, can we have from Hindustan time, Aurangzeb ji? Can you unmute your mic and ask a question, please? Hindustan times. Sir, he may not be there in the video. He sent you the question. You can ask the question that he sent you. I'll then, sir, read out the question that he has sent to us. Aurangzeb ji from Hindustan times wanted to ask, everybody accuses the PM of centralizing everything control, centralizing everything. But he has been engaging with chief ministers as well. What do you have to say? Also, have you suggested your CMs to deal with migrant population specifically? That's the question, sir. Sorry, can you repeat the first part, the control part? Aurangzeb from Hindustan times wanted to ask everybody accuses the prime minister of centralizing everything and controlling it. But he has been engaging with the chief ministers including those of the opposition. What do you have to say? And secondly, he said that what's your suggestion to deal with the migration population? The best line I have heard in my conversations was that COVID cannot be controlled. It has to be managed. It has to be dynamically managed. And if you manage it properly, then you will be able to fight it back. But if you try to control it, you will not be able to control it. There's a difference between management and control. I think one needs to go beyond conversations. One needs to actually start putting money on the table, dynamically asking the chief ministers, what do they need? How can the central government help? So it is more than a conversation. It is a method of working. On the migrant issue, I think couple of mistakes were made with regards to the suddenness of the lockdown that have created a problem. We have a lot of migrants who are now stuck and it is going to become a bigger problem as we go ahead. And it is very important that we have a strategy for this. And I think the central government should work on a strategy of this either how to move, how to solve this migrant issue in the States. I have not been speaking directly to my chief ministers about migrants, but I have mentioned to them that they need to handle this situation with extreme care and gentleness. Thank you, sir. Can I ask Manoj CG from Indian Express to comment, please? Manoj CG from Indian Express. Manoj, please ask your question if you're here. I think he sent it. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Manoj has sent, he has got disconnected for some reason, but he sent the question and I'll read out his question to you. What Manoj basically wanted to ask from the Express was, and I read the question, all the Congress rule states had demanded extension of the lockdown. You on the other hand have asked the government to change its one size fits all strategy. You have argued that India's conditions are unique and need to take different steps unlike other large countries which are following a total lockdown strategy. Why this contradiction or sedition? Well, first of all, India is the only country in the world that is attempting a lockdown with the migrant population that we have. There is no other country in the world that has the scale of migration that we have other than China, which is stopped the migration in its tracks because the Chinese system is different. They have most of their migrants live in factories and live near factories and live in proper housing. So we have this huge migration problem. And we are also quite a decentralized country. I have been a member of parliament in Uttar Pradesh and in Kerala. I can tell you that the response in Kerala is completely different than the response in Uttar Pradesh. The results are different. The way of working is different. The style is different. So you need to give much more power to the chief ministers. In my view, the center needs to control the main arteries, the main national system. But the state needs to control its area. So if Chhattisgarh, in my view, wants a more nuanced lockdown and Uttar Pradesh wants a total lockdown, that choice, in my view, should have been given to the chief ministers. But it's fine. It's not being given. We have passed that. Now there is no point going over it again. Now we have gone into a full lockdown. We are now opening up partially on the 20th. I'm advocating a strategic opening because I fear that if you open and you do not have testing, you will be forced to go into a lockdown again because you will see the disease profile will pick up. So that is why I'm advocating for a strategic lockdown where the state governments are aggressively testing and checking what is going on dynamically. Thank you, sir. I will request now Arun Kumar Singh. He is here from the CNN IBM to ask his question. Arun, if you are listening to me, I can unmute you and ask you. Hello. Yes, Arun, if you are listening. I can't see Arun. Sir, he has a mask on his face. He is standing outside. Okay, Arun Kumar. Yes. Hello. Hello. Mr. Raul, I have a small question. The Prime Minister of Sambodhan, which was the name of the country last time, he said that he does not want to separate this Mahamari from any other country. But still, India is in the best of conditions in other countries. Do you think that the progress that the Indian government is taking, and you are satisfied with it? Look, what the rest of the country is doing, and what we are doing, frankly, I am not worried about the rest of the countries. I am interested in what I am doing in India. And I said that there are many areas on which we have to think, where we have not received the answers to the questions. There is a very big area of testing. The second area that is going to have a financial impact on us, what are we doing about that? The third area that is going to go to food shortage, what is our strategy on that? The fourth, our small and medium businesses, which give us 40% daily income in the country, what is our protection plan for them? I do not think that the rest of the country is as complicated as India is. If India is as big as India, then we will have to think proactively and act up front. If this fight has just started, it will be very wrong to declare victory today. Because this is a long fight. And we will have to fight this fight systematically. Thank you, Haroon Ji. May I now request Anand Patel from India today. He is here. Unveil your mic and ask a question, please. Good afternoon. My question is with regard to the problems faced by the farmers in the country. We have seen the farmers struggling to sell their crop, that is one. And second, the losses which they are making because of the COVID pandemic. So far, we have not heard any step from the government, union government to mitigate for the losses in terms of the MSP, which they announced before every season. What are your suggestions to the government in this regard? My suggestions is to think about a safety net for critical areas of our economy. Food is going to be a major problem. It's going to be a huge problem. We have our good arms full. And after our crop, we are going to have an overflow. Let us start giving that food out to the poor people. Farmers require protection. Prepare a package and deliver the package. Unfortunately, the nature of the crisis is such that everybody is impacted by it. You can talk about farmers. You can talk about small and medium business. You can even talk about big business. So it has to be an Indian response. It has to be a response that is compassionate to everybody. But one must keep in mind that do not use all your ammunition right now. Because if you use all your ammunition right now, and we end up two, three months from now with a serious financial blowback, we have a real serious problem. So it has to be a thought through strategic way of doing it. My advice is give out as much money to the poorest, weakest people as you can, but keep in mind that there is going to be a financial backlash. So water is going to come back. Next question. Hi, Maasmi ji, you are here. Sorry, I apologize. My mic got muted. Maasmi Singh from Ajtaq is here. Maasmi ji, please ask you a question. I can see you. Yes, Mr. Rahul, hello. Can you hear me? Yes. Yes. Mr. Rahul, you are testing. You said testing, testing, testing. And testing should be done. This is also said by the Prime Minister. The rapid testing kits. Their studies have been delayed from three to four times. And finally, the consignment from China is going to arrive today. Which is a major part of this fight. The things that are coming from China, whether it is protection gear, are of very bad quality. And rejected by the government. My question is, do you think where is the failure? Is it in China's land or the government's land? And secondly, the foreign minister, Mr. Shah Sathraj, is accusing the testing kit of being insulted by them. Whether it is Maharashtra or other states. And they are getting less testing kits. So, I have a question. Look, once the disease started, obviously, all the countries started asking for their testing kits. So, the supply of testing kits today is limited. It is a reality. America also wants testing kits. Europe also wants testing kits. All countries want testing kits. In that situation, India does not have testing kits. What you are talking about rapid testing kits is also a miniscule number of kits. So, we will have to find a way. Now, we are here. I do not want to say why we are here. But we will have to find a way to do testing at scale. Because if you want to fight COVID, you cannot fight without testing at scale. You do not know where is the disease. Suppose you have made hotspot areas and non-hotspot areas. If you are not able to test in non-hotspot areas, then you do not know when you will get the hotspot. So, if you want a graduated strategy, then you need testing. It is critical. Now, I do not want to say why it has not happened. I want to say that we need to do testing quickly. There can be a proxy for testing. So, it is not just about testing. There can be other ways. But we have to do it strategically. It will not be a simple way. By strategically thinking, testing is our main weapon against the virus. It is a strategic weapon. It has to be used like a strategic weapon. Currently, as I said, we are chasing the virus. If someone has a virus, we have tested it. Then we are chasing it. Without random testing, you will keep chasing the virus. And the virus will keep coming out of you. When you are doing random testing, you will be able to stop the virus. Sir, the question is about the non-hotspot strategy. What did you say? The question is about the non-hotspot strategy. In the case of testing kits and PPE, the minister of the Maharashtra also said that the non-hotspot strategy is not working. I don't want to comment on that. Thank you. Umashankar ji from NDTV is here. Umashankar ji, your question. Umashankar ji, your question. Umashankar ji, your question. Umashankar ji, your question. Umashankar ji, your question. Umashankar ji, your question. Umashankar ji, your question. Yes. Shankar Ji, can you just move your hand so I can see you? I've got a lot of... I can't see you. The gentleman in Marum Shah. Thank you. I would like to ask that the problems of migrant laborers have reached hundreds of kilometers. But the lockdown is still closed in many places. The government is trying to help them, but it is not helping them. So would you suggest that they take a medical method and reach their areas through a special train? I would suggest that they follow the medical protocol. You would suggest that they take a medical method and reach their areas through a special train. This is a technical question. There are many experts who can answer this question. There are two or three different views. But the government should be able to resolve this with the experts. I'm not an expert to answer this question. Supriya Bhardwaj from TV9. I can see you Supriya Ji. Will you unmute and ask your question? Hello. I have a question for you. The migrant workers are crying a lot. The main problem is that they are not getting food. You have repeatedly said that they should be open to the greeneries. And the greeneries should be open to the people. So would you again suggest that the people should be given food through an emergency ration card? And how much impact can it have on the migrant population? Food supply is a critical thing. We should have done this 10 days ago. The food in our go down should be distributed. There are many people who don't have a ration card. They should also be given food. But I think that 10 kg wheat and rice, 1 kg pulses, 1 kg sugar should be given to the government every week. Those people who are hungry. Minimum means absolutely. Because our go down is oversupplied. And it will be over after the harvest. Thank you Supriya Ji. Ashish Singh Ji from ABP. Ashish Ji from ABP. Will you unmute yourself and ask? Yes sir here. Ravji good afternoon. Can you hear me sir? I can hear you. What colour shirt are you wearing? So this is like a check pattern. Do you like it? First let me see it. So the fact that you have taken note, I take that as a compliment. I can't find the check pattern shirt. It is a very small check. And you are wearing a nice blue mask also. Thank you very much sir. This is a designer mask gifted to me by a friend. Thank you very much. Sir my question to you is that you just tweeted a few days ago and said that one size fit all lockdown method is not good. And a lot of people were affected by it. I want to ask you this sir. In your view, where did Prime Minister Modi go missing? What big mistake did he make? That is why I am asking you. Because the leader of opposition in Raj Sabha Ghulam Navi Azad Sahib said that he doesn't think that it can be handled in any other way. Because if we look at other countries, we have taken very good pre-emptive steps. What is your opinion on this? What do you think, where did the government go missing? I will tell you the day when COVID-19 has defeated India. But today I want to give constructive advice. I don't want to read too much. What would you like to give constructive suggestions? I have just told you constructive suggestions. Safety net, those who are weak, Nya Yojna, type of Yojna, direct money, direct money in the bank account of the poorest people, food, small and medium industries, protection plan that our strategic companies, the big ones, which are very connected companies, protection for them and the virus to stop it, strategy. In this, Go ahead, sir. In this, we don't have to declare victory because this is a long battle. In this, everyone has to fight together. I can disagree with Mr. Narendra Modi in many things, but there is no time to fight today. Today, with the country, we have to unite the country and fight with the virus. And if we, look, this is not even a negative, no one needs to be afraid. Because if we do this together, then India will reach another place. It will get a very positive result, it will benefit a lot. This is a test for our country in a way. And we should embrace this test. There is no need to be afraid. It will easily defeat India. If India stands together, if we start fighting with each other, we will lose. Pallavi from CNN IBM. She is not here. Can I ask Mr. Shadab from Rajasthan, Patrika to come in. Mr. Shadab, unmute and ask. Namaskar. Good afternoon, sir. My question is, you and Congresswoman Sonia Gandhi, and Congresswoman Anni Nita, they are giving a suggestion to the PM. The PM has also called for all party meetings. He has also sat with Mukherjee. All the parties have given a suggestion, but the opposition is not accepting their suggestion. It does not feel that the government feels that Congress should be credited. Because of this, they are not making any suggestion. What do you think about this? I do not want any credit. I just want to protect the people and our country. I do not need any credit. I do not care. I can take whatever credit I want. But our work today is to give constructive suggestions. We will continue to do our work. Thank you, Mr. Shadab. Mr. Sanjay Jha from the telegraph. Mr. Sanjay Jha, if you are here. Sir, you asked the question on his behalf. He is not joining. He is sending the question. He has sent the question, and I will ask that he has probably dropped out. He says, post-Corona crisis, do you fear the nature, even the structure of Indian democracy could change? That is a real possibility. But we have to first take care of the virus. We know how to make sure that India is democratic. Do not worry about that. But right now, we have to make sure that we defeat this virus. Unmute yourself. Thank you, sir. Sameer from times now. Sameer, you were here. Yes, I am right. Sir, my question is pertaining to the health of the migrant workers. Not much has been spoken about that. They are living in camps and in what conditions they are living. The second part to it is, while the government has been claiming that WHO has lauded all the work done by the government, do you think the financial package announced so far is adequate and sufficient? I think we need to be much more liberal with the amount of money that we are giving our people, because it is a question of protecting them and protecting our economic structure. So I don't think we should be penny-pinching right now. The amount of money that has been given is nowhere near adequate. So we need to significantly increase the amount of money. And just my other question was about the health of the migrant workers. Now you see, one of the issues with a complete lockdown in a country like India is that a complete lockdown in Islam is practically not enforceable. So you have completely different problems in Islam that you have in a place where people are living separately in buildings. This migrant labor issue is a very serious issue. One needs to think about it, work on it and resolve it. I mean there are some people who are suggesting moving the migrant labor. Some people are suggesting don't move them, give them food, give them assistance where they are. Whichever choice the government chooses, they need to act on it quickly, because if they do not act on it quickly, we will see social unrest developing very fast in this country. Look, the thing is you cannot blame people. You see, one of the conversations I've been having with the chief ministers, you cannot blame people in this situation. So you have to be compassionate with people. And if people are coming out, there is a very valid reason for them to come out because they are starving, so you have to fix that reason. So I think we have to, as a government, our government has to be very, very compassionate and sensitive to these feelings. It has to respond to them quickly. Unmute yourself, sir. Unmute yourself. Sorry. Thank you. Mr. Sanjay Mishra, please ask your question to Mr. Jagaran. Sir, you can ask his behalf, he is not connected to us. Sir, his question is that you said that there should be a strategy. So according to you, what should be the most important strategy to fight COVID-19? Divide this into two parts, economic and health. On the health side, you have pressed the pause button. When you remove the pause button, the disease will run fast. So for that, you have to do the whole preparation before removing the pause button. Hospitals, states with money, healthcare, testing, your whole system should be ready to go in tip-top shape by 20 days. First of all, on the other hand, financial protection, a safety net for poor people, a system like Aadhar, where we put money directly in the bank account of the most poor people, a food security system that distributes our food, I pointed out the ration card. Talk to small and medium industries and quickly, prepare a financial package or strategy for them. And the strategic companies will also have to give you protection. Sir, there is one more thing. Mindset. The most important thing is not to come into the mindset of declaring victory. Mindset should be that we will fight COVID-19 for the last minute and eradicate it. Premature declaration of victory is fatal. Thank you, sir. Very quickly now, we'll take a few more questions. Raman from News 24. Raman, please unmute and ask the question. Raman from News 24. Sir, may I ask his question? Yes, Raman. Raman, I want to ask this. You said that there cannot be a solution to the problem from the lockdown. There cannot be a fight against COVID-19. There can be a solution to the problem. But it is not possible without testing. We have seen that in some parts of India, there are a lot of scared and scared people. When the police, doctors and nurses go to them, they stone them. Many people in the country have appealed to them that they cannot fight this fight without testing. I was listening to Salman Khan as he appealed to them. Will the congressmen appeal to people that when such people come to them for testing, they are not scared at all. They should give them a chance to test. They should help them in the right way. Testing is not going to harm anyone. Testing gives information about the disease and should be tested on a large scale. The most important thing is that if you want to fight the disease, then India has to be united. The caste, religion, age, everything has to be united. Wherever India fights in the middle, it will start there. So everyone has to do one thing and move forward. You asked a question about the strategy. I would like to say one more thing. There is a vulnerable population. The elderly are vulnerable. There is a unique thing in India which is not in Western countries, in America or Europe. In India, our diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, pollution, chronic lung infection are not only in the elderly, but also in the middle-aged and young people. In the middle-class, the people who have this risk, the people who have this disease, and the elderly, it is very important to give protection in the non-hot zone. Inform them and tell them that they are at risk. It is very important and you have to do this strategically. Because I think this is the disease of the elderly in Europe and America. But in India, this is not the disease of the elderly. I think it is possible that this can be the disease of the young and middle-aged people who have diabetes, hypertension, heart disease. We should think strategically about how we will keep them separate. After the lockdown. Thank you, sir. There is an important question coming from one of the pink papers, that is business standard from Arches. If he is here, will you ask the question? Otherwise, he has asked the question. Sir, you should also ask him. Sir, he has asked that the economic slowdown has weakened many Indian corporates, making them attractive targets for takeovers. Do you feel that the government must not allow foreign interest to take control of Indian corporates? I think there are strategic areas that we need to be very careful of. I think he is right. This has weakened our system and this is hopefully a temporary weakness. But we need to be careful that people do not take advantage of this opportunity and pick up stakes in strategic areas that are important to our country. Absolutely. Thank you, sir. There are many, many friends. I have close to 200 questions still pending, but I am sure you will be now interacting more frequently. So I would now, on your behalf and on behalf of the All India Congress Committee, I would like to thank all our journalist friends and also thank you for this interaction. I'd like to say a couple of things, Randeep, if you want me to do this on a regular basis, I'm happy to do it. If the journalist would like me to do that, I'm happy to do it. I just want to tell the people of India that you have nothing to worry about. You might be feeling that this is a very scary experience. We've never been locked up in our house. What is going to happen to us? I want you to know that this country is bigger than any disease. This country knows how to deal with much, much bigger challenges than the one we are facing. So I want you to think about this with a sense of confidence. If we are able to overcome this, it will put us actually in a much better place. It is challenging. It is difficult, but we will do it together. I am absolutely convinced that we will succeed. We will defeat this virus and India will come out at a better place. As a member of the opposition, I want to give support to the government, to all the governments, not just the national government, but the state governments. And I want to tell all the people who are fighting this battle that we are very proud of you and we know the difficulties that you're going through, the trouble that you're going through. I think one of the things that hasn't been mentioned in this press conference, protective equipment for doctors and nurses. This is something that absolutely has to be delivered because they are at the forefront of this fight. But we must not deal with this through fear. Fear is not the prism we should use. The prism we should use is confidence. We are a great nation and we are going to win this fight. And we will come out much better on the other side. Thank you very much. I'd like to say that. Let me speak in Hindi. Yes, sir, speak in Hindi. Many people are locked up in their homes. They are afraid. People are unemployed. Many people are afraid that they won't get food. And I want to tell you all that there is no need to be afraid. India will easily defeat this virus. But India will have to work together. It will have to work together. The virus is giving us the same message. It is giving this message to all the countries. If we are divided, the virus will win. If we are united, we will defeat the virus. So there is no need to be afraid. With confidence, India will defeat this virus. The Congress party and I want to give constructive support. Whether the government agrees or not, we want to give our suggestion. Whatever suggestion our government wants to take, it will take. It doesn't want to take. But our job is to give positive suggestions. After defeating the virus, India can reach a new place. We can move ahead very quickly. But we will have to work with confidence without fear. Thank you all very much. Thank you very much. I want to thank all the journalists and friends from Rahul Ji and from the Congress committee. We will continue this interaction as Mr. Rahul Gandhi said. We will also give suggestions to the government. We will also give suggestions to the government. We will also give suggestions to the government. We will also give constructive support to the government. But more than that, we will continue with the 130 crore people from India. Rahul Ji, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.