Battle for life: Tough decisions must to defeat corona says Modi

New Delhi: In his first Mann Ki Baat after the country went into a 21-day lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the battle against COVID-19 is a tough one and it required harsh decisions to keep India safe.

"The battle against COVID-19 is a tough one and it did require such harsh decisions. It is important to keep the people of India safe. A disease must be dealt with at the very beginning as delay makes it incurable," said the Prime Minister.

"I seek forgiveness... I am sure you will forgive me that you had to undergo so much trouble. Some people will say what kind of prime minister is this, but these are special circumstances.

You had to undergo problems I understand but there is no other way out to fight the coronavirus," he said. "But this is a battle for life and death."

He said as the coronavirus has put the entire world in lockdown, so "India is doing the same."

"It is a challenge before everyone, science and knowledge, poor and rich, powerful and weak. It is neither restricted to a nation nor region or to a particular weather. This virus is bent upon killing human beings, eliminating them.

He said he was admitted in the Government hospital called Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad, where he recovered after 14 days and was discharged.

The techie told Modi while he was feeling relieved that he has come out of danger zone, it was nevertheless a very scary experience. "First... I was very scared, not ready to believe that it had happened. Because in India, there were only two or three cases, I didn't know anything about it.

When I was admitted to the hospital, they kept me in a quarantine. The first 2-3 days passed just like that. But the doctors and nurses there… they were very nice to me. They would call me up and talk to me and give me confidence that nothing will happen, I would be okay, they kept on saying twice or thrice a day."

That, he said, gave him a lot of confidence. The PM asked him what precautions the techie took. Teja said that he was advised 14-day home quarantine after getting discharged from the hospital.

"So even after coming home, I am at home mostly in my room, wearing a mask the whole day. When I come out for food, hand washing is most important," he said.

Wishing him all the best, Modi suggested that he being a techie should prepare an audio of his experience and make it viral on social media so that people could benefit from his experience on precautionary measures. This will help in creating awareness about the disease and will help in reducing the scare among the people.