SJM requests PM Modi to ban Chinese apps, equipments

Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) on Monday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to ban Chinese social media and e-commerce apps and Chinese telecom equipment.

Citing the dastardly terrorist attack at Pulwama, the RSS-affiliated organisation in its letter said that it is the duty of all Indians to take steps to prevent the economic gain of any nation or individual that directly or tacitly supports such terrorists in continuing their activities unabated.

"We welcome the various moves made by the ministry of finance including the withdrawal of Most Favoured Nation as well the increase in customs duties for all products imported from Pakistan. It is widely known that the Chinese government continues to block our nation's attempts to designate the chief architect of these terror attacks as a 'global terrorist'.

"At such a time, we believe it is imperative that the government create similar hurdles for Chinese companies that are using India for their economic gain," said SJM's All India Co-convener Ashwani Mahajan in his letter to the Prime Minister.

Stating that data is now considered the new oil, the letter further stressed on not allowing Chinese companies to capture Indian user data without any restrictions and monitoring.

"In the past two years, there has been a proliferation of Chinese social media and e-commerce companies and other applications in India. These apps have been known to have various security risks. In fact, the Ministry of Defence had in December 2017 asked all armed forces officials to uninstall over 42 applications with Chinese origins that had significant security risks," read the letter.

Asserting that there is a clear case for enforcing national security provisions in telecommunications, the Swadeshi Jagran Manch also demanded the government to curtail the operations of Chinese telecom companies in India.