Sangh affiliate SJM announces nationwide protest against RCEP

Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, October 11

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In his Vijayadashmi address two days back Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat evoked Dattopant Thengadi, the founder of organisations like the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh and the Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), to pitch for ‘swadeshi’ goods while presenting his views on the state of economy.

Now the SJM, the economic wing of the Sangh, which has been criticising the government’s “push” to include the Automatic Trigger Safeguard Mechanism (ATSM) in Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade negotiations, is launching a nationwide protest against RCEP—the 16-country Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between October 10 to 20 in all district centres.

The SJM will submit a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi through the district magistrate in each district, said Ashwani Mahajan of the SJM in a statement issued on Thursday, calling upon all affiliated and like-minded organisations and individuals to join the protest. The nation is currently facing a crisis in both manufacturing and agriculture which is resulting in job losses in the country, the Sangh affiliate said.

“We urge the government of India to not sign RCEP which would push the present and future generations into joblessness and poverty. It should urgently publish the studies carried out by the government on the performance of FTA and finalise and publish the Parliamentary standing committee report on FTA,” said the sister organisation of the ruling BJP in the Sangh Parivaar

The SJM also said “though the crisis in manufacturing is due to the lack of a comprehensive industrial policy since 1991; the FTAs India has signed in the last decade play a major role by allowing cheap imports and hollowing out of Indian manufacturing.

In 2018-19, India had a trade deficit with 11 of the 15 RCEP negotiating countries. In the previous year India had a USD 104 billion trade deficit RCEP countries and more than half of this was with China”

Quoting Thengadi in his Vijayadashmi address, Bhagwat said “Forgetting ‘swadeshi’ consciousness while seeking answers to the pressures of the situation, will also lead to loss.”

“However, to minimise the impact of other immediate crises and the ups and downs of the world economy on our financial system, we need to go to the basics and ponder. We have to formulate our own economic vision keeping in mind our requirements, profile and condition of our people and our resources and potential to realise our national aspirations

We have to take steps to formulate our own economic vision, policy and system that instil in us capacity to create more and more employment with least consumption of energy that is beneficial for the environment, make us self-reliant in every respect, and create and expand trade relations with the world on the basis of our strength and terms,” said Bhagwat, the ideological mentor of the BJP.

According to Mahajan, “RCEP would effectively function as a FTA with China”

“Those who argue that RCEP would increase the competitiveness of the Indian manufacturing, SJM would like to ask them to look at the impact of WTO’s Information Technology Agreement 1 (ITA1) on India’s hardware industry. ITA1 is responsible for the virtual decimation of India’s hardware industry.”