NEW DELHI: From Russian oil to Pepsi, Coke and social media, the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch has sought to turn the latest US tariff threat into a wider “swadeshi” campaign, calling on Indians to boycott American products and platforms and asking the Centre to stay firm in trade negotiations with Washington.The RSS-affiliated economic body reacted to legislation passed by the US Senate that, according to SJM, would empower the American President to impose tariffs of up to 100% on countries making significant purchases of Russian oil. It said the move amounted to an attempt to dictate India’s energy choices.“No country has the right to dictate India’s energy security and sovereign trade policy,” SJM national co-convenor Ashwani Mahajan said, adding that India’s Russian crude purchases were driven by price, availability, supply diversification and consumer interests.SJM said the proposed measure assumed greater significance with India and the US engaged in negotiations for a bilateral trade agreement, arguing that talks “cannot be conducted on gun point”.It also urged the Centre to reconsider two recent policy moves which it claimed favoured US companies — changes allowing FDI e-commerce entities greater flexibility over inventory for exports and an amendment enabling merchant discount rate on certain UPI transactions.
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Going further, SJM called for a ban on US tech and social media companies if Washington pursued what it termed “unilateral economic coercion”. It asked citizens to begin by boycotting Pepsi, Coke and US-owned social media and e-commerce platforms, saying the campaign could be expanded if American actions continued.The organisation asked the government to reject any attempt to link tariffs with India’s oil purchases and not compromise on agriculture, dairy, energy security or strategic autonomy during trade negotiations.SJM maintained that access to the US market should not be used to force third countries to alter their energy sourcing decisions.
