NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday likened Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a cricket crew captain and mentioned he gave his bowlers a specific amount of freedom whereas anticipating them to take wickets. Jaishankar mentioned Modi’s knack of taking powerful selections was additionally on show when India determined to announce the lockdown after the outbreak of Covid, step up manufacturing of vaccines, roll out an inoculation programme and assist nations in want of vaccines.
“With Captain Modi, there is a lot of net practice. The net practice starts at 6 o’clock in the morning and goes on till fairly late,” Jaishankar mentioned throughout an interactive session on the Raisina Dialogue with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former England cricketer Kevin Pieterson.
The exterior affairs minister mentioned Captain Modi additionally gave a sure latitude to his colleagues and trusted them to take care of a specific scenario. “If you have a particular bowler you have trust in or you have seen perform, you would give them the latitude, you throw the ball to them at the right moment. You trust them to deal with that particular situation,” he mentioned.
“In that sense, Captain Modi does give his bowlers a certain amount of freedom. He expects you to take that wicket, if he gives you the chance to do it,” Jaishankar mentioned.
He additionally recalled watching the prime minister take powerful selections when the Covid pandemic broke out three years again.
“All of us, if we look back for the past three years, the decision to lockdown was a very very tough decision. But, it had to be taken at that point of time. If we now look back, what would have happened if we had not taken that decision,” Jaishankar mentioned.
The minister recalled how he had labored carefully with Blair to make sure provide of uncooked supplies for manufacturing of AstraZeneca/Covishield vaccines.
Jaishankar mentioned one other powerful name was to ship vaccines to almost 100 nations when there was a whole lot of questioning inside the nation.
“It was a tough call. Whether it is sports or any competitive situation it is the willingness to take the difficult call, stand by those calls, give the people the confidence that you will stand by them when they take the risks. This is all about competition and leadership,” the minister mentioned.
