ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

Swadeshi is no panacea!

I don't know how to react to the statement by Union Defence Minister George Fernandes at the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad convention in Bombay, where he suggested that students should launch an agitation to boycott foreign goods.

Perhaps it's time the government came up with a clear-cut economic policy. If it wants to reverse the process of economic reforms and liberalisation, it is free to do it. But it can't have its cake and eat it too.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha are burning the midnight oil to finish the unfinished business of economic reforms and somehow get relevant bills passed in Parliament. On the other hand, the defence minister is provoking the youth to go on the rampage, destroying foreign goods.

This is a dangerous statement. He wants students to fight Pepsi, Coke and other multinationals. Several Pepsi trucks were recently set afire in Gujarat and other states by hooligans in the name of swadeshi. The situation got so bad that the state governments found it difficult to bring the situation under control.

Fernandes seems to be inviting a similar situation, one that could even turn violent. If youths all over the country start destroying multinational products, then no shop in the country is safe. Specially targeted will be the general merchant. The fact is, even small shops stock multinational products. These include chocolates, toffees, blades, razors, soaps, toothpaste, oils, shampoos, edible oil, tea, shoes, cosmetics... The list could go on and on.

Are we ready to destroy all this? People have been using Dalda vanaspati ghee (vegetable oil), Red Label tea, Bata shoes and Lifebuoy soaps even in the villages for several decades. Will they give them up just because George Fernandes does not want them?

If the present government wants all multinational products to be boycotted, it is welcome to push the idea, but it will have to provide the consumers with some alternative. Millions of people in India are earning their bread and butter, working to make these products.

First, self-styled rashtrawadis like George Fernandes should create a pure swadeshi market. Only then does he have the right to make such a call as he did. He himself will have to practise swadeshi in the strict sense. This would mean not travelling in aircraft built by Boeing and Airbus or trains pulled by ABB engines, not watching colour TVs that have imported picture tubes, and not using computers.

This is ridiculous. He should come out of his hangover of the bullock-cart age. We should protect our national interest and try to get some benefits from multinationals. After all, multinationals like Hindustan Lever and Bata did not cause India any damage in the last 50 years. Most of these multinationals have Indian heads, who are as concerned about India as George Fernandes is.

For example, Suman Kant Sinha of Pepsi was closely related to the late Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan and is no less a patriot than Fernandes. It is a myth that all multinationals are looting India. These multinationals also provide jobs to millions, quality products, top technology, and marketing skills and help engender a competitive market so that consumers can get the best of everything.

They are bringing in foreign investment and only taking away their share of the profit. If there are multinationals who are trying to exploit India and grab more than their due, they should be banned. After all, a number of Indian industrialists have also got foreign accounts and stashed money abroad through havala (illegal foreign exchange) transactions.

My humble advice to Fernandes is that instead of provoking Indian youths to go on the rampage, he should concentrate on building the Indian economy. He should find how to solve the balance of payments crisis and reduce the fiscal deficit. Creating a law-and-order problem in the country by asking the youth to set shops on fire is no solution.

Rajiv Shukla