"The India-Bashing Should Stop": Anand Mahindra Points To 'Mumbai Model'

As Japan battles a fresh wave of coronavirus infections, industrialist Anand Mahindra has urged authorities there to follow the “Mumbai model”, saying everyone must understand that the virus can only be defeated if we mount a collective effort to “heal the world together”. The Chairman of Mahindra Group also asked people to stop “India-bashing”, suggesting nothing of value can be added to the fight by doing so.

Mr Mahindra has regularly spoken on social media about the pandemic and given suggestions or retweeted ideas that others should follow in these tough times. On Tuesday, he shared a report saying that hospitals in Japan's Osaka, a large port city and a commercial centre similar to Mumbai, are running out of beds and ventilators during a fresh wave of the pandemic.

The ‘japanese model' of fighting Covid & their health infrastructure was envied. But yes, “No one's safe anymore.” The India-bashing should stop & we need to understand that we have to heal the world TOGETHER. Osaka should try the ‘Mumbai Model.' https://t.co/GHDoPRCruk

— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) May 25, 2021

A number of people lauded Mr Mahindra for speaking out against those only criticising and not giving any constructive suggestions.

True, Schadenfreude over India or other countries does not help. Introspection however is needed and never an excuse to call out complacency in governance.

— The Raul (@rahulsitm) May 25, 2021

Building half baked narratives only help so called journos and politicians from opposition parties, their pain is well understood by common man. Good to see that finally somebody of your stature raised voice against India bashing, its the need of the hour.

— Sugandha Bhardwaj (@Sugandha111111) May 25, 2021

But there were many who disagreed with the 66-year-old tycoon and said criticising a government should not be equated with criticising the nation.

Sorry Sir, you are equating India with its govt. India is not equal to its govt. We are criticising the govt for mishandling the pandemic, not bashing India. Please use correct terminology.

— Shaveta sharma (@Shaveta36174686) May 25, 2021

India bashing?
Please don't equate govt incompetence with the whole country.
Hold your leaders accountable

— Aakash ???? (@AakashMathai) May 25, 2021

Learning from the first wave last year, authorities in Mumbai made several improvements to their approach to tackle the second wave. They went for centralised bed allotment, including some private hospitals, and anticipated oxygen shortage, and arranged storage facilities.

They created a dashboard for regularly monitoring the situation and followed that up with patients and those who recovered via their “war rooms”. This refined approach to manage COVID-19 spread has been lauded by many people, including Mr Mahindra. Here's what he tweeted earlier this month:

Have been tweeting about hopeful signs of improvement in Mumbai. People were naturally sceptical about low testing & under-reporting. The litmus test, however, is the availability of hospital beds & the ⁦@mybmc⁩ covid dashboard shows that's been steadily improving ???????? pic.twitter.com/vCzsokcCWB

— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) May 9, 2021

Coronavirus cases in Mumbai started to peak in February. On April 4, the city recorded its highest single-day surge of 11,206 new cases. But since the beginning of May, the city's COVID-19 caseload has started to decline. On Monday, Mumbai reported 1,057 new COVID-19 cases, a decline of 374 cases from the day before.