A post circulating on social media (here, here, and here) claims that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently urged the people of India to refrain from purchasing foreign goods, particularly those imported from China, for 90 days. According to this post, if all Indians do this, India could become the second richest country in the world, and the value of the Indian rupee could reach 2 rupees to one US dollar within the same timeframe. The post also asserts that during Diwali last year, buying local goods led to a 20% reduction in the consumption of Chinese products. Let’s verify the claim made in the post through this article.
Claim: PM Narendra Modi has urged the people of India to refrain from purchasing Chinese goods for 90 days.
Fact: On many occasions, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has encouraged people to support indigenous products through his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ program and other media. Both PM Modi and Union Ministers have clarified that their promotion of indigenous goods is not directed against any particular country but aimed to make India self-reliant. There has been no statement from Modi claiming that a 90-day boycott of foreign goods would make India the second richest country in the world or that the rupee would equal two rupees to one dollar. Therefore, the claims made in the post are Fake.
Investigating with Google keywords, we found no official statements from Prime Minister Modi or the government urging a 90-day boycott of foreign goods, especially Chinese products. News agencies neither reported such a call from Modi nor claimed that this would make India the second richest country or cause the rupee to equal two rupees per dollar.
During our investigation, we found a relevant news article from News 18 Hindi, dated 1 November 2021. This article reports that Prime Minister Modi encouraged buying indigenous goods and promoting local products. The headline reads: “PM Narendra Modi appealed for Swadeshi Diwali, ‘China suffered a loss of Rs 50 thousand crores.'” The article notes that Modi frequently advocates using indigenous products and supporting the “Local for Vocal” initiative, but it clarifies that this appeal is not targeted against any specific country.
According to the article, Modi and several ministers have emphasized that the “Swadeshi” and “Local for Vocal” campaign aims to boost India’s self-reliance, not to oppose any particular nation.
On the occasion of Diwali in 2023, a letter in the name of PM Narendra Modi urging people to buy only products made in India went viral. However, the Prime Minister’s Office had clarified that these letters circulating on social media in Modi’s name are fake. Additionally, news organizations published articles confirming that this information spreading on social media is false.
To sum up, this post claiming that PM Narendra Modi has appealed to the people of India not to buy Chinese goods for 90 days is fake.
