Days after Rajiv Bajaj, Managing Director, Bajaj Auto, spoke about why boycotting Chinese imports was not feasible, Sajjan Jindal, Chairman, JSW Group, on Monday said Indian businesses cannot keep making money by buying cheaper Chinese raw materials while our soldiers are getting killed at the LAC.

“A lot of my friends and co-industrialists are upset as their business with China is important to maintain healthy margins and continuity. But this situation has come because of our complacency in blindly accepting cheaper imports from China rather than developing our own domestic vendors,” Jindal said in a statement on Monday.

“We have to support our armed forces and government and prove that we stand with them in this fight against the Chinese,” he added.

Last week, Bajaj had said his company imported ₹600 crore worth of components from China.

“We have friends who are suppliers in China, who have invested time, effort and money in supplying us not a vicious virus but alloy wheels, very reliably for years, maybe for the last 15 years if not longer. How do we suddenly let them down even if we could? Is that ethical, is that what we would like to stand for either as a company or as a country? We have to ask ourselves,” he had said.

On the other hand, Jindal stated, “We cannot keep making money by buying cheaper Chinese raw materials for our business while our soldiers are getting killed at the LAC by them”.

JSW Group, which imports goods worth about $400 million from China, has decided to stop it over two years.

Asking the industry to take this as an opportunity to come together and push for a stronger Atmanirbhar Bharat , Jindal said domestic producers should be supported in achieving quality and scale besides showing loyalty to Indian products.

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