The BJP Thursday launched a nationwide outreach programme with homemade or ‘swadeshi’ products at its core to commemorate the birth anniversary of its ideologue Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay.
The ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat and Swadeshi Abhiyan’ will continue for three months until the birth anniversary (December 25) of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, said Arun Singh, BJP national general secretary and the party’s in-charge for the campaign.
Similar to the movement that was initiated in reaction to, and successfully reversed, the partition of Bengal announced by then Viceroy Lord George Curzon in 1905, this movement will also have a technical dimension that aligns with current global economic conditions. While the 1905 movement boycotted mainly cotton-based foreign goods, this one does not have the need to boycott anything in particular, as long as it is manufactured in India by its citizens.
Singh said the campaign will see the next step of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to tread on the path of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ (self-reliant India) for the nation to become developed by 2047, adding that the ‘Swadeshi’ push is at the core of the objective.
“The Prime Minister has appealed to 140 crore citizens to buy products which are made in India… These are those items which are made in our country and with the sweat of our sons and daughters… BJP president J P Nadda has, following the PM’s call, given us the task of making this a people’s movement,” Singh said, addressing a press conference over the initiative in Delhi.
“You all remember that after the partition of Bengal in 1905, this call for ‘swadeshi’ was given in protest. After that, the British had to bow to Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee ji, who had thrown their weight behind the movement for ‘swadeshi’,” he said.
“The struggle for ‘swadeshi’ also became the basis for the freedom movement. This, too, will be conveyed to the people, and the significance of ‘swadeshi’ will be underlined. Mahatma Gandhi ji, inspired by the ‘swadeshi’ movement, made it a movement for each citizen,” he added.
20,000 events, ‘swadeshi’ reels
According to party sources, the programme will feature around 70 events in each district of the country, translating to an estimated 20,000 big and small events, including 1,000 ‘vocal for local melas’ and ‘swadeshi’ reels by eminent personalities, among other initiatives.
“Swadeshi here means accepting and utilising products which are made in India; this is not a call for boycotting anything, we are not boycotting anything. All we are saying is that Bharatiya products and those items which have been manufactured with the skill of Indians need to be prioritised,” he said.
“Like the prime minister has said, the aim is to enthuse citizens to accept those products that smell of the sweat and soil of India. This mindset takes us towards atma nirbharta and cultural pride, which was espoused by Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay ji,” he said.
The roadmap, he said, will include reaching “each doorstep” with a sticker promoting swadeshi products, and, going forward, also connect with the promotion of the ‘One District One Product’ programme, which aims at a push for items which are indigenous to a district, aimed at increasing the income of those engaged in their manufacture.
“We will appeal to each household to ensure that items of daily use: in their kitchens, on their dining tables, to utilise 100 per cent ‘swadeshi’ products… Around 20,000 initiatives will be undertaken across the country…We will request shopkeepers to display local products at a ‘swadeshi corner’ in their shops,” he said.
