Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said
on Saturday that the Indian Army has upped the country’s morale and enabled the
populace to keep their heads high during the border standoff with China, PTI
reported.

“The charismatic performance by the Army during the India-China standoff has boosted the morale
of the country and also enabled the citizens to hold their heads high,” Singh
was quoted as saying during the stone-laying and ‘bhoomipujan’ ceremony of the
new Command Hospital in Lucknow.

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On May 5, 2020, a stand-off had
started between the Indian Army and the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) in Ladakh’s
Pangong lake region.

“The entire world is facing
COVID-19. pandemic No one had thought that with the onset of the pandemic,
celebrating festivals such as Holi, Eid and Diwali will be without much fanfare.
No one had imagined that trains will come to a halt, and schools and markets
will remain closed. However, the good thing was that under the leadership of
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, efforts to deal with the crisis started with
courage and understanding (of the issue),” the Defence Minister further
said, highlighting the time when the standoff and the pandemic together made
the domestic situation quite unstable.

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Pointing out that there were only two
laboratories at the time compared to the 1000 existing laboratories today, as
well as an acute shortage of masks, ventilators and PPE kits India faced at the
time which it exports to other countries in the present day, Singh noted that
all of it was done in a span of four to six months, an impressive feat.