The leader of opposition in Karnataka legislative assembly, Siddaramaiah, has recently shared his opinion about the Modi Government on his Twitter account.
He said The Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for boycotting Chinese products. The state govt has purchased nearly three lakhs of PPE kits from china. @CMofKarnataka is that your Prime Minister’s temperament? 14/15 #LekkaKodi
ಪ್ರಧಾನಿ @narendramodi ಅವರು ಚೀನಾ ಉತ್ಪನ್ನಗಳನ್ನು ಬಹಿಷ್ಕರಿಸುವಂತೆ ಕರೆನೀಡಿದ್ದರು. ರಾಜ್ಯ ಸರ್ಕಾರ ಸುಮಾರು ಮೂರು ಲಕ್ಷ ಪಿಪಿಇ ಕಿಟ್ ಗಳನ್ನು ಅದೇ ಚೀನಾದಿಂದ ಖರೀದಿಸಿದೆ. @CMofKarnataka ಅವರೇ, ಇದೇನಾ ನಿಮ್ಮ ಪ್ರಧಾನಿಗಳ ಆತ್ಮನಿರ್ಭರತೆಯ ಪಾಲನೆ? 14/15#LekkaKodi
— Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) July 23, 2020
Blame it on the pandemic and the border dispute in the Himalayan regional territory of Ladakh, but the result is the same: some Indian businesses are boycotting China.
Earlier this month, over 50 Chinese apps were banned, including popular consumer apps like WeChat, TikTok and Baidu Maps. India is in a dispute with China, and now many small business owners, and even the government, are working to turn away from Made in China.
The government is now asking Indian e-commerce companies like Flipkart and Amazon India to label country of origin for all products sold on its websites.
India is setting itself up to be a testing lab for what the U.S. might do if China relations continue to worsen. This will especially be true if Trump gets re-elected, and doubly so if the new SARS coronavirus makes a comeback in the winter and hospitals are overrun in key cities, like New York, once again. The attitude towards China will harden in that case.
Indeed, it already has in India.
Companies have until August 1 to roll out labelling with some items being pushed out further into October, suggesting this is a trend that is here for the medium term.
