China once again has blocked India’s bid to designate Pakistani militant and JeM Chief Masood Azhar, who claimed a suicide attack that took lives of more than 40 soldiers in Kashmir, as a global terrorist. This is fourth such stance by China on Azhar. It placed a technical hold on the proposal seeking more time to consider it.
And this has not gone well with Indian traders body and the Swadeshi Jagran Manch. Both the organisations have decided to call for a boycott of Chinese products in India to teach the country a lesson for supporting the militant.
The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), which represents 70 million traders, said it would burn Chinese goods on March 19. It has launched a national campaign to boycott Chinese goods among the trading community of the country.
The time has come when China should suffer due to its proximity with Pakistan, CAIT said in a statement.
A leader of SJM, Ashwani Mahajan calling to snatch Most Favourite Nation tag from China and called for boycotting Chinese products.
“Taking a cue from history, the best way to defeat China is #BoycottChinese and strong action from govt on the trade front,” he said on Twitter.
#SJM writes to PM “Now the time has come to withdraw most favoured nation (MFN) status from China, as your govt has already done in case of Pakistan and impose restrictions on China products, especially telecom& electronics, defence equipments on security concerns @sureshpprabhu pic.twitter.com/RzyNHxDly9
— ASHWANI MAHAJAN (@ashwani_mahajan) March 14, 2019
Earlier, SJM had also appealed to the government to disallow investment in companies, such as Paytm, which are getting funding from China.
Over the years, China has grown to be the second biggest trading partner of India. From Chinese mobile phones to kids toys, their products have penetrated in almost most of the cities in India. Trade between both the countries has touched $90 billion in the year ending March 2018.
As of now, India can’t take any unilateral punitive action against a fellow member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), said India’s trade ministry.
Speaking on China’s stand on Azhar, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that it’s a diplomatic issue, and India will take a decision after careful thought.
