Author: Unnati Parekh Gujarat Law Society, Ahmedabad
The world economy is in turmoil due to the pandemic outbreak, and the implications of this widespread disease are visible not only in its existence but have given rise to many major issues with which nations are striving to cope up. India has magnificently found ways to protect the interest of people and also fight against the pandemic. The initial approach towards Covid-19 was improvising the hospitals and medical facilities. The second strategy was a lockdown procedure across the country. Now that we have observed rigorous failure in the stability of the economy, the major economic crisis has to be taken into consideration. Thus, the government has requested us to use Made in India products and services that are not provided by any other nation. This means that we need to be a self-reliable democracy.
In my apprehension of the current economic crisis, this agenda of boycotting foreign items and sources, in itself aims to uplift our country based products and also provide a strong foundation for the intelligence to grow across. When we see this ideology of made in India, one finds it absurd as we have fewer options in the market and so we need to stabilize and grow the demand-supply graph. It is noteworthy that this step of self-reliance would invite problems in the international market and also it can be used against us in the near future.
International resource usage has been given a major space in the Indian market as we are a free-market economy, but we also have a wide scope of development if we boycott the usage of these outsourced items and binge onto the local market. China, which is one of the most popular strategically playing economies, finds this decision of India harsh on them and they feel targeted amongst other countries. This is not rival propaganda that we propagated against them but it is their opinion that India is striving to breakdown their interests and will result in breaking down the Chinese economy. We cannot forget the fact that China is not a free-market nation, neither have they used any products or services that they provide to us, and a strong platform like media is also bound by the government directions. An important fact is that Made in India is not rivalry propaganda but a mere uplifting of the Gandhian ideology of making-selling-using strategy within our boundaries and not end up getting dependent on other nations.
I believe that this is the most relevant factor for which the Chinese military troops have been attacking us in the recent outrageous Galwan Valley incident. Boycotting their Chinese products agitated the Chinese government and they indirectly started to target our minds and left grieving for the loss of 20 brave martyrs who gave their lives to protect us from the war-like situation
What is the incident all about?
It is an agitated brutal killing of our unarmed soldiers, a violent clash between the Indian and Chinese armed forces at the Galwan Valley near the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh. We need to consider that both these nations have signed bilateral (border) agreements in 1993, 1996 and 2005, which enables the activities which are allowed and not allowed along the Line of Actual Control between India and China.
But in the current Indo-china ace-off, the soldiers died due to fighting and no arms were used by our soldiers because of the above-mentioned agreements. Article VI of the 1996 agreement directed us under Section (1) of Article VI – which neither side can open fire guns or use explosives within two kilometres of the LAC. This means that both sides have agreed to not use weapons within the two kilometres of the LAC on both sides. Thus Indian soldiers were unarmed to avoid any war-like situation and want peace at LAC. It may be noteworthy that although the Chinese side showed barbarism by attacking Indian soldiers using primitive weapons like stones, sticks studded with nails and wrapped with barbed wire, they technically didn’t breach the agreement by not firing bullets and shots at us. But this manifestation of abiding by the agreement and then brutally killing our army personnel’s is inhumane and barbaric conduct on their part.
I apprehend from the current situation that China wants to trigger us and distract other countries as it is well-known to all that somewhere China is accountable for the Covid-19 outbreak. Now is the time we need to be ethical and supportive of the decisions of our government and boycott China. We have been struggling to fight against the pandemic and have only focused on our development but if China takes it as propaganda against them and breaches the basic human conduct, we need to give them a befitting answer but not through war.
We are agitated, we are grieving the loss of our brave martyrs, we are disheartened, we are triggered but we still have faith in our military forces and the government directions. China faced Coronavirus outbreak, floods, and international loss of its repute, still crossed the LAC and now they will get an answer to their actions. I urge you all to stop using any product or application sourced from China; let’s just make it a weapon in disguise to give real tribute to our soldiers.
Envying our silence is easy but to put it in simple emotion,
China says it all, India does it all….!!