(TibetanReview.net, Jun01’25) – Swadeshi Jagaran Manch (SJM), the economic wing of the RSS, a Hindu religion-based nationalist volunteer organization with 5-6 million members spread across India, has on May 30 expressed disappointment that despite a call for boycott of Chinese goods in the past, imports from the country had increased and announced a new nationwide campaign.
“It is true that despite the patriotic public boycotting China and other foreign goods, imports from China have increased in the last few years,” the indianexpress.com May 31 quoted SJM’s convener Ashwani Mahajan as saying. The outfit has blamed this trend on e-commerce platforms and foreign brands violating trade rules, apart from “poor confidence” of India’s business community in the country’s manufacturing capabilities.
Mahajan has announced a nationwide campaign for promoting indigenous goods, which he sought to link with national security in the backdrop of Operation Sindoor, India’s reprisal action for a Pakistan-based terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam town on Apr 22, during which China is suspected to have supported Islamabad militarily. He has said the campaign was inspired by PM Narendra Modi’s call in Gandhinagar earlier this week that traders must take a pledge to not sell foreign goods.
The report noted that on May 27, Modi had made a veiled attack on imported goods by pointing out how “small-eyed” Ganesh idols were coming from abroad. “We must encourage village traders to pledge that no matter how much profit they make, they will not sell foreign goods,” he had said.
Suggesting that this statement was in the context of Chinese products, the SJM has said, “Our forceful retaliation to Pakistan’s misadventure has also brought to light our friends and foes. It is a welcome decision to snap or reduce trade relations with those countries which have helped our enemy in this recent war.”
The report noted that India’s imports from China had surged significantly in the past five years, with a cumulative trade deficit exceeding $387 billion from 2018-19 to 2023-24. The imports had grown from around $70 billion in 2018-19 to over $101 billion in 2023-24, while exports had been relatively stagnant around $16 billion annually.
“The reason for this (surge) is that Chinese goods are also sold in India in a disguised manner; sometimes by removing the Chinese label and putting the Made in India label, sometimes by e-commerce companies and foreign brands violating the rule of origin and sometimes by importing from China in the form of intermediate goods,” Mahajan has said.