Eyeing our land earns a befitting reply, says PM Modi

tion Army (PLA) were twice the deaths on the Indian side. Beijing has not disclosed the number of soldiers it lost.

In his radio address, Modi said: “...the entire country comes together in paying tributes to the bravery of our jawans who attained martyrdom in Ladakh. The entire country bows to them in reverence, with gratitude. Just like their family members, every Indian painfully regrets the loss.” He added that India, which is facing multiple challenges including the coronavirus disease pandemic, cyclones and locust attacks, also has had to “deal with the designs of some of our neighbours”.

The Prime Minister appealed to citizens to use indigenously made products, saying being “vocal for local” is also a way to strengthen the country and to serve it. Modi said India’s aim is to become self-reliant, its tradition is trust and friendship, and its spirit is brotherhood.

“We will keep moving ahead abiding by these principles,” he said.“a self-reliant India would be a tribute to our martyrs in the truest, deepest sense.”

In May, his government announced a ₹20-lakh-crore welfare package to boost the economy and make India “self-reliant” in the face of the disruptions triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic.

In his radio address, Modi also referred to a woman from Assam, who, he said, wrote that she has resolved to buy only local products after watching the developments in eastern Ladakh. “I am receiving messages on these lines from every corner of the country,” Modi said.

Amid the border face-off with China, a clamour to boycott Chinese goods has been growing. Backers of the move say this will hurt the neighbouring country economically. An analysis of the World Bank’s World Integrated Trade Solution (WITS) database by HT on February 15 showed Chinese imports had an average share of almost 40% in India’s total capital goods imports, onefifth of consumer goods imports, and 15% of intermediate goods imports. The analysis was based on import data from 2014 to 2018.

In Mann Ki Baat, Modi said that before Independence, India’s defence sector was ahead of that in many countries. “There used to be a multitude of ordnance factories. Many countries that lagged behind us then, are ahead of us now. After independence, we should have made efforts in the defence sector, taking advantage of our prior experience… we did not. But today, in the fields of defence and technology, India is relentlessly endeavouring to advance on those fronts… India is taking strides towards self-reliance,” he said.

The opposition Congress party, which has been unsparing in its criticism of the government’s handling of the border situation, took a fresh dig at the Prime Minister. “In 33 minutes of Mann Ki Baat, he did not take the name of China even once. Why is the PM afraid of China?” the Congress’s chief spokesperson, Randeep Singh Surjewala, asked.

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi, too, questioned the Prime Minister over his “18 meetings” with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the last six years. “I implore the Prime Minister to say China is an aggressor,” he said.

While the Congress says the government has not come clean on the border situation and ceded ground to China, the Centre accuses the principal opposition party of politicising an issue of national security.

Both India and China have significantly reinforced their deployments with fighter jets, helicopters, tanks, heavy artillery and missile systems in the region that has garnered extensive global attention in recent weeks, particularly after the bloodshed along the LAC.

Senior Indian and Chinese military commanders reached a consensus on disengaging from friction points along the LAC on June 22. However, China has not halted — and instead ramped up — its military activities in Galwan Valley, Depsang sector and the Finger Area near Pangong Tso, according to satellite images.