In March, Ratan Tata had committed Rs 1,500 crore in the fight against coronavirus.
Industrialist Ratan Tata on Sunday appealed for "empathy" as he pointed out that "online community (is) being hurtful to each other, bringing each other down, harshly and with quick judgements". "This year has been full of challenges," the Chairman of Tata Trusts said in a post shared on his official Instagram account in an apparent reference to coronavirus pandemic, which has affected over 4 lakh people in India, and other challenges being faced by the country.
The 82-year business leader, whose Tata Trusts had committed Rs 1,500 crore in the fight against COVID-19 in March, urged social media users to exercise "sensitivity" and "kindness" towards each other. A majority of population has been forced indoors due to the pandemic; a large number of people lost their jobs. Apart from coronavirus, some parts in India had to also deal with floods and locust attacks in the last few weeks.
Last week, India mourned the death of 20 soldiers in a violent face-off with China.
"This year has been full of challenges for everyone, on some level or the other. I see the online community being hurtful to each other, bringing each other down, harshly and with quick judgements," Ratan Tata wrote on Instagram.
"I believe this year especially calls for us to be unified and helpful and is not the time to pull each other down. More of sensitivity towards each other, more of kindness and more of understanding and patience than what one sees today," he said.
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A post shared by Ratan Tata (@ratantata) on
"My presence online is limited, but I truly hope it will evolve into a place of empathy and support for everyone, no matter what you cause, rather than hate and bullying," the top businessman - followed by over 2.6 million people - added.
The post left many of his followers inspired. "Phenomenal message thank you sir for sharing," one of his followers wrote.
"You are an inspiration," another user wrote.
Last month, Ratan Tata had written a post encouraging the entrepreneurs, urging them to "adapt and create" in order to overcome the challenges facing the economy amid the coronavirus crisis." He said the creativity of entrepreneurs today would "find ways to enable new or modified enterprises" which could become benchmarks for tomorrow.