Gopal Agarwal: National lockdown not a solution to Covid in India

A national lockdown is not a solution to the current Covid-19 crisis in India, Gopal Agarwal, a spokesman for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has told BBC World News.

The states and districts of India had been given "a free hand" to deal with the pandemic, he said.

And the level of infection varied across the country, so individual states could deal with their local circumstances.

"The central government in the second wave has consciously decided that a second lockdown is not required," he said.