#BoycottChina campaign gains steam as Swadeshi Jagran Manch and CAIT urge Center to ban Chinese companies from government tenders and boycott China economically too

The Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) and the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) have called for economic boycott of China amidst the battle between Indian soldiers with Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh. The Chinese troops attacked Indian soldiers in a cowardly manner resulting in the supreme sacrifice of 20 Indian soldiers.

Ashwani Mahajan, co-convenor of Swadeshi Jagran Manch has said, “This incident will remove the veil from the eyes of those who say that there was no firing. We should boycott China economically.” Earlier, SJM had demanded the Delhi-Meerut RRTS project should be given to an Indian company instead of the Chinese firm. Mahajan had tweeted, “Tibet should be returned to the Tibetans to establish peace in the region.”

On the other hand, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has launched a campaign to take on China economically. CAIT has launched the ‘Indian Goods – Our pride’ campaign to boycott Chinese products and promote the use of Indian goods. CAIT has listed 450 products imported from China which have to be boycotted.

Calling for a boycott of these Chinese goods, CAIT has said that its objective is to bring down the imports from China from the present 70 billion dollars i.e. about 5.25 lakh crores rupees to 13 billion dollars or about one lakh crores rupees. This will hurt the Chinese economy immensely says the CAIT.

The list of Chinese products prepared by CAIT include everyday items like furnishing fabrics, toys, household items, gems & jewelery, footwear, apparel, textiles, building hardware, electrical & electronics, kitchen items, luggage, hand bags, cosmetics, gift items, Fashion Apparel, Food, Watches, Clothing, Stationery, Paper, Furniture, Lighting, Health Products, Packaging Products, Auto Parts, Feng Shui Items, Diwali & Holi Items, Eyeglasses, Tapestry Material etc.

CAIT National President BC Bhartia and General Secretary Praveen Khandelwal have said that currently India’s imports from China amount to about 5.25 lakh crores or 70 billion dollars annually. CAIT has selected more than 3000 India made products in the first phase, which are alternatives to Chinese goods. However, all these products were being imported from China as they were cheaper than India made products.

However, given the emerging border scenario both SJM and CAIT have vowed to educate and urge people to boycott Chinese products in all aspects of life.