SJM to organise nationwide protest against RCEP

The Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), an affiliate of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has announced a nationwide protest at all district centres against the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

The protests will be organised in between October 10-20 during which the district units will also submit a memorandum to Prime Minister through District Magistrate.

It has also called upon all the affiliated and like-minded organisations and individuals to join the protest.

"The nation is currently facing a crisis in both manufacturing and agriculture which is resulting in job losses. Though the crisis in the manufacturing is due to the lack of a comprehensive industrial policy since 1991, the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) India has signed in the last decade play a major role by allowing cheap imports and hollowing out of Indian manufacturing," SJM said in a press statement.

"In 2018-19, India had a trade deficit with 11 of the 15 Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiating countries. In the previous year India had a USD 104 billion trade deficit RCEP countries and more than half of this was with China," it read.

"Further, WITS (World Integrated Trade Solutions-World Bank) data shows the deteriorating trend in the trade deficit. India's trade balance to total trade ratio deteriorated from -17.5 per cent to -22.6 per cent with respect to ASEAN, -43 per cent to -56.2 per cent for South Korea, and -30 per cent to -44.9 per cent for Japan. RCEP would further deteriorate the situation," the organisation outlined.

The SJM has requested the government not to sign RCEP, which it claims would push the 'present and future generations to joblessness and poverty'.