SJM to launch nationwide movement to encourage people to boycott foreign goods

New Delhi, Jun 10 (PTI) The Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) on Tuesday said it will launch a nationwide movement this week to encourage people to use indigenous products and boycott foreign goods as it called upon the government to curb imports of Chinese products.

The RSS affiliate also called upon the government to protect national interest while entering into free trade agreements with other countries and regulate e-commerce giants to stop them from indulging in "predatory pricing".

The 'Swadeshi Suraksha evam Swavlamban Abhiyan' will be launched at an event here on Thursday, SJM national co-convenor Ashwani Mahajan said in a statement.

He appealed to people from different walks of life including traders, representatives from industry, farmers, students and social organisations to become part of the movement to make India great again.

"The consumer must become a conscious citizen, not just a passive buyer. When one chooses a local product over a Chinese import, or supports an Indian platform over a foreign digital monopoly, one is participating in nation-building," he said.

"We also call upon the government to curb imports of Chinese products and protect the national interest while entering into free trade agreements with other countries," it said.

"We also call upon the government to regulate e-commerce giants, and stop them from indulging in predatory pricing, warehousing of their products being sold on their platforms, stop practice of preferred sellers and selling of products with their own labels; and uphold the law of the land," it added.

The SJM also urged the government to provide "encouragement" to Swadeshi digital platforms and Indian MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises), start ups, like ONDC (open network for digital commerce) and support them.

It called upon the government to protect and promote "Indian electronics, telecom and other strategic industries".

Mahajan said India's freedom struggle was not merely a movement to gain political independence from British colonial rule but also an assertion of economic dignity, cultural identity, and civilisational sovereignty.

"The Swadeshi movement, born during the early stages of independence movement, was a clarion call to reject foreign goods, restore domestic production, and to rebuild India's self-sufficient economic ecosystem," he said.

He said political will, policy interventions and public participation in achieving 'atmanirbharta' (self-reliance) in some of the sectors, have shown positive results.

"Today, more than seven decades after independence, we are once again confronted with a silent but dangerous form of economic colonization," Mahajan said.

The players have changed, the methods have become more sophisticated, but the objective remains the same: "to dominate India's markets, control our consumers, weaken our producers, and deepen our dependency on them", he claimed.

"This new colonisation comes not with gunboats or viceroys, but through the digital manipulation of e-commerce platforms, the infiltration of hostile economies into strategic sectors, and the unfair dumping of cheap foreign products into our market," he further claimed.

Some of these "dubious players" were exposed during the ongoing tariff war and recent Pakistani misadventure of attacking our territories, he added.

"China has long been India's biggest trading partner, but this relationship has become increasingly one-sided and dangerous. India's trade deficit with China consistently and currently reached 99.2 billion USD, with cheap and often substandard goods entering Indian markets, undercutting our MSMEs, destroying jobs, and weakening domestic manufacturing capacity," Majajan claimed.

"Turkey, a country whose present regime under President Erdogan has made no secret of its anti-India rhetoric and unholy alliances with Pakistan and extremist forces. Yet, Turkish companies continue to invest and operate freely in India, reaping the benefits of our open market while undermining our sovereignty," he added. PTI PK ZMN