Back and forth

Bharatiya Janata Party General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya surprised many by his strident #BoycottChina tweets. He appealed to the people to boycott goods made in China this festive season to support India's protest against Beijing blocking New Delhi's bid to get the United Nations to designate Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar a terrorist. "Buying Chinese product is indirect support to a terrorist country," Vijayvargiya tweeted.

Using the same hashtag, he also tweeted that he was "saddened" that Chinese goods were flooding the Durga Puja market in Kolkata. "An Appeal to traders: No matter how cheap Chinese goods are, the country's security and prestige are more important that profit," he said in another tweet.

A day later, not only were all the tweets deleted but there was also a clarification from an aide of Vijayvargiya. "I am Pranjal. I seldom post for Kailash ji when he needs, but in emotion I did #BoycottChina tweets sans approval and (these) were not his official statement," the tweet said.