DELHI COLONY DECLARES, All over India, people are angry. On Monday, 20 soldiers died in a face-off with Chinese soldiers in Ladakh’s Galwan valley. Protests have broken out throughout the country with people demanding the boycott of Chinese goods and burning Jingping’s pictures. In particular, Delhi’s Defence colony has declared “war” on China.
A 5-minute audio video has been circulating online in which retired Major Ranjit Singh who the president of the colony’s RWA association states- “Today, as your president, I declare Defence Colony is at war. Unfortunately, we cannot take up guns and bullets but definitely there are other means. We can break China’s backbone economically and today I request you all, with immediate effect, shun Chinese goods and if you have any lying in your house, please throw them out,”.
Clarifying, first of all, the soldiers were not unarmed, there is an unofficial agreement between the troops and both sides won’t use firearms despite actually holding them. 16 soldiers were injured due to the stones and spiked metal rods Chinese soldiers threw at them, the other four died after falling down due to the terrain. Sadly, the 16 injured died shortly followed them. It was night, the terrain is very rough with temperatures remaining under 0 degree Celsius. The soldiers were brave, despite the attack on them, since the Chinese troops didn’t violate the agreement nor did they. They died for their country.
Protests have occurred in all states, some people in Surat even broke a Chinese LED TV in front of the media to show their seriousness. People are even requesting Prime minister Narendra Modi to conduct a surgical strike on China like he did with Pakistan. Some even asked to sever all ties with China.
The issue of whether to boycott Chinese goods or not is a major issue. Chinese goods are quite popular in India due to how cheap they are, on top of that a lot of technological companies famous in India are actually Chinese. The biggest question is whether its practical or not? Sure, Chinese companies might be hit a bit, but Indian companies will be hit much more as most small-scale businesses actually depend on Chinese goods. The Indian market is too competitive and dominated by the big companies, the only way these small companies can survive is by selling Chinese goods. The Chinese also have quite a bit of shares in Indian companies like Flipkart and Jio.
China and India have never had good relations but are very complementary to each other when it comes to businesses. China has the production capacity while India has the market and businesses. There have been speculations of Chinese companies trying to dominate over Indian companies but that is something the Government can keep check on by making policies and controlling the trade.
Boycott Chinese goods are easy to say but whether it is the right decision or not is debatable. It really depends on the policies the Government makes, the current policies favor people buying goods from China and selling them in India, all we can do now is just wait and hope for the best.
