In an interview with the Manchester Guardian in 1965, the
then foreign minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto famously said, “If India
builds the bomb, we will eat grass or leaves, even go hungry, but we will get
one of our own. We have no alternative.”
The world has seen how Pakistan has built the nuclear bomb and
what cost its citizens have paid for the toy that will perhaps never be
unboxed. It may be argued that the nuclear arsenal build by Pakistan and India
has created a strong enough deterrence for any war between the two countries.
Regardless, we had a war in Kargil (1999) and significant rise in the violence
in the Kashmir Valley and along the line of control (LoC) since both countries
declared themselves to be the nuclear powers in 1998. India has struck twice
deep into PoK and changed the status quo materially in J&K in past 5 years.
Many soldiers and civilian die every year on the both sides of LoC; and
Pakistan economy is surviving on the IMF support. Bhutto did not realize that
hungry people would need food to survive, which nuclear weapon cannot provide.
Similar is the sentiment in India these days. The politicians
are exhorting people to shun Chinese goods; and people appear ready to forgo
consumption of goods with Chinese connection. "Self Reliance" is the
war cry against China.
Being self reliant in my view is the best economic policy. But,
"self reliance" could have entirely different connotations. Even
within the government there appears no consensus over the form and degree of
"self reliance" we are talking about in present day context.
Listening to and reading about the views of various functionaries of the
government, politicians in power, and people supporting "boycott
China" movement on social media and streets, I find the following popular
perceptions of "self reliance" -
(i) Use only Made in India
products.
(ii) Become a manufacturing
powerhouse like the South East Asian economies did in 1990s; and produce for
the global economies. In the process we should encourage the global
corporations to either relocate their manufacturing facilities from China to
India; or source their global requirements from the manufacturers in India.
(iii) Become trade surplus
economy; especially in manufactured and agriculture products, reversing the
colonial model of development, i.e., supplier of raw material and importer of
manufactured items.
(iv) Ban
"unnecessary" imports from China, e.g., toys, decorative items,
furniture etc.
(v) Become "self reliant"
in defence production.
(vi) Ban all investments by
Chinese investors in Indian businesses.
However, a deeper probe reveals that most people have no
objection to the investments from and trade with Japan, Korea, UK, European
Union, Canada, Russia, Australia, Gulf Countries, Latin American and African
countries. Insofar as the USA is concerned, the feelings are mixed and
ambivalent. Most of the people however do not mind deeper economic relations
with the USA, provided the USA offers little more favorable terms in terms of
VISA and taxation.
So basically, when we say "self reliance" and
"trade barriers" we are primarily talking about limiting trade with
the "enemies" China and Pakistan" and restricting the movement
of labor from Bangladesh.
The worst part is that very few people leading the "boycott
China" movement from the front, do not have even basic knowledge of the
contours of India's trade with China. They hardly realize that the so called
"non essential" items imported from China are a miniscule part of the
total trade, but may be accountable for the employment and affordable
consumption of millions of lower middle class and poor people in India. ....to
continue
