Economic Nationalism Is a Wrong Turn for Covid-Hit India
Modi gives voice to a “buy local” campaign to counter pandemic crisis and border tensions with China.
Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping two years ago. Tensions are rising.
Photographer: Mikhail Metzel/TASS/Getty
Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants all 1.3 billion Indians to be “vocal for local” — meaning, to not just use domestically made products but also to promote them. As an overseas citizen living in Hong Kong, I’m doing my bit by very vocally demanding Indian mangoes on every trip to the grocery. But half the summer is gone, and not a single slice so far.
My loss is due to India’s Covid-19 lockdown, which has severely pinched logistics, a perennial challenge in the huge, infrastructure-starved country. But more worrying than the disruption is the fruity political response to it. Rather than being a wake-up call for fixing supply chains, the pandemic seems to be putting India on an isolationist course. Why?