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Wednesday, July 1, 2020

My Nation is uppermost to me ! ... Boycott Chinese products !!


Should India boycott Chinese products, how that can be done ? – how much will it impact our economy – and how much would it impact China ?

Are you an Economist ? or do you understand Economics !!  - have you read ‘the Wealth of Nations’ – do you know Adam Smith, John Meynard Keynes, Milton Friedman – my simple emotional answer is ‘I am angry ! ~ I want to boycott Chinese goods’. My knowledge of Economics is ‘Indian Economy is best economy, Indian economy is …………… ’ !!  ~ my simple logic is let me not contribute to the richness of someone who is always enemy of the Nation.  I am ready to buy a product, even if its comparatively lesser in technology but costs more than what the Chinese one is.

Most Nation loving Indians are  angry after bloody clash on June 15 between Indian and Chinese troops at Galwan. Across the country, there are calls to boycott Chinese products and halt bilateral trade, with people burning Chinese appliances and goods and a Union minister even wanting a ban on restaurants selling Chinese food. WhatsApp forwards are further stoking this sentiment. This is no Central Govt or ruling BJP against Chinese but My Country – I feel for my army men who is guarding us foregoing all their comfort.  Jai Jawan.

I was temperate reading the announcement of BCCI and vowed that I would not watch any of the IPL matches if that were to happen ! ~  Chinese smartphone manufacturers Vivo will continue to be title sponsors of the Indian Premier League (IPL), said a top BCCI official, addressing speculations that the Indian cricket board may have to reconsider their deal following the violence in Ladakh’s Galwan valley that claimed the lives of 20 Indian soldiers. “The contract was signed by our predecessors. It’s a five-year deal and will continue,” said treasurer Arun Dhumal.   The money is coming into India,” he argued. To me it sounded ridiculous – every advertiser is only trying to invest, not doing charity, more the advt, more the sales would be ! – to see them on IPL and if players were to endorse them also, the product sales would naturally increase.  That is my limited knowledge of Economics.

In Dec 2019, Chinese handset maker Vivo  retained the title sponsorship of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The company was to  pay the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Rs 2,199 crore over the next five years.  The next highest bid was Rs 1,432 crore by Oppo, which holds the Team India sponsorship rights. Both Vivo and Oppo are parts of the same parent group. The base price for bidding was Rs 600 crore for five years, or Rs 120 crore per year.  The deal was at a big mark-up to the previous one Vivo had with the BCCI. The Chinese handset maker came in as title sponsor in 2016 after beverage giant Pepsi pulled out of its five-year deal with the BCCI over a match fixing and betting scam. While Pepsi was to pay the BCCI Rs 396 crore over five years, Vivo picked up the two-year title sponsorship at Rs 200 crore.  When BCCI went to market, Five companies, all handset makers, had applied for the title sponsorship. Apart from Oppo and Vivo, the others were Xiaomi, Motorola and Intex. Soon after, IPL also roped Paytm, the mobile wallet company, as the official Umpires Partner (an on-ground sponsor) between 2018-22 for an undisclosed amount. One of the main investors in Paytm is Alibaba, a Chinese e-commerce company.

Today comes the news that the IPL has convened a meeting of its Governing Council next week to "review various sponsorship deals" for the tournament following tensions this week on the India-China border. The move reflects the fact that the IPL's main sponsors, including title sponsor Vivo, have Chinese ownership or links. While there has been tension at the border in the Indian region of Leh for some days, the flashpoint was the gory  incident on the night of June 15; though details are scarce, the Indian government has said that its army lost 20 soldiers, including one senior officer, in the incident. Posting a late tweet on Friday, the BCCI just said it would review the IPL sponsorship deals but did not name exactly which ones.

A mega online poll involving all Network18 digital and social news platforms, conducted to gauge public sentiment on China in the aftermath of the Galwan Valley clashes earlier this week, has shown that at least 70% of Indians are willing to boycott Chinese goods even if it means paying extra. Meanwhile, 91% of the respondents said they will stop using Chinese apps and social media platforms and also encourage others to do the same.

While that is the National sentiment, Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram today  said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remark on the Galwan valley conflict with China has left practically everyone baffled and bewildered.   Speaking about the call to boycott Chinese products, Chidambaram said that simply boycotting their products will not hurt the economy of the neighbouring country as Chinese trade with India is only a fraction of its world trade. "We must become self-reliant as much as possible but we can't decouple with the rest of the world. India must continue to be part of the global supply chain and not boycott Chinese goods. What part of Chinese trade with India is China's world trade? It's a fraction," he said.  He may be well-educated, but is that statement right at this stage ! – should not Congress be supporting the Nation rather than opposing the Government ?

Elsewhere,  in  a hard hitting speech, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attacked China for its “rogue” attitude in its neighbourhood, specifically mentioning its recent border attacks against India. “The PLA (People’s Liberation Army) has escalated border tensions with India, the world’s most populous democracy. It’s militarising the South China Sea and illegally claiming more territory there, threatening vital sea lanes,” Pompeo said during an online conference on democracy in Copenhagen, Denmark. During questions he said democracies and freedom-loving peoples of the world needed to come together to tackle China. Pompeo was careful to focus his criticism on the Chinese Communist Party but unusually cited Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, by name. “General Secretary Xi Jinping has green-lighted a brutal campaign of repression against Chinese Muslims, a human rights violation on a scale we haven’t seen since World War II. Now, the PLA has escalated border tensions with India,” he said. Pompeo said China was responsible for “pushing disinformation and malicious cyber campaigns so as to drive a wedge between the US and Europe.” The Chinese Communist Party wants to undo the progress the free world has made and adopt a new set of rules and norms that accommodate Beijing.

Just in case, if you were intrigued by the names : Adam Smith, John Meynard Keynes, Milton Friedman

1)          Adam Smith FRSA (1723-1790)  was a Scottish economist, philosopher, and author as well as a moral philosopher, a pioneer of political economy, and a key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment, also known as ''The Father of Economics''.    Smith wrote two classic works, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776).
2)            John  Maynard Keynes (1883 – 1946)   was a British economist, whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments.
3)             Milton Friedman (1912 – 2006)  was an American economist who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the complexity of stabilization policy.

One need not be an Economist to say that I love my Country and would not support anything that is against my Nation.  Mera Bharat Mahan Hi.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
20.6.2020

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