BJP launches 3-month campaign to promote swadeshi products

New Delhi: The BJP on Thursday launched a three-month-long nationwide campaign to promote the use of swadeshi products, stressing that it considers all items manufactured in India, including those made by foreign companies, as swadeshi.

Under the campaign, which has started on the birth anniversary of Deen Dayal Upadhyay and will end on the birth anniversary of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, BJP members will approach households to use swadeshi products and organise several programmes to promote the cause.

While Upadhyay is a key party ideologue, Vajpayee was the first BJP prime minister.

Addressing a press conference, BJP national general secretary Arun Singh said "har ghar swadeshi" (swadesh in every house) is central to building an "Aatmanirbhar Bharat", and the party will work to connect every household with the campaign.

He emphasised that the three-month campaign ending on December 25 is not aimed at boycotting any product but at giving priority to products made in India and by Indians.

He said over 20,000 "Aatmanirbhar Bharat Sankalp Abhiyan", over 1,000 fairs, and more than 500 "Sankalp Rath" to promote indigenous goods will be organised, and celebrities and talents will be involved to spread awareness through social media.

The party will also organise meetings of youths, women and traders, he added.

"We want to create a people's movement for swadeshi by reaching out to everyone," he said, adding that swadeshi is at the root of self-reliant India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's thrust on "vocal for local", he said, has led to a boom in the purchase of khadi products and setting up of mobile manufacturing factories, while imports of products like toys have gone down.

In its campaign, the BJP will emphasise that swadeshi was one of the drivers of India's freedom movement as well, and can now bring economic self-dependence to the country.

The Modi government has taken a series of measures in its tenure for "aatmanirbhar Bharat", he said, listing its massive push to infrastructure by spending over Rs 12 lakh crore against Rs 2.5 lakh crore under the UPA government.

The BJP-led NDA government has creates five times more employment than its predecessor, said Singh, who also heads his party's "aatmanirbhar" campaign.

Over 52 crore people have benefitted from Mudra loans worth over Rs 32 lakh crore over the years, he said.

Traders will be encouraged to sell swadeshi products and dedicate a corner of their shop to these items, he said.