Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday appeared to target China as he exhorted Indians to strike out foreign goods from their lives, seeking to keep the Operation Sindoor flame burning by dovetailing it to his government’s push for self-reliance by involving the people.

On the second day of his tour to home turf Gujarat, Modi held a road show in Gandhinagar and addressed an event to celebrate “20 years of the Gujarat urban growth story”. He had started his tour on Monday with road shows and rallies in Vadodara, Dahod, Bhuj and Ahmedabad to celebrate the success of the military offensive against Pakistan.

“Aur ye sindooria mizaz, ye sindooria spirit,” Modi said in Gandhinagar, going on to exhort people to shun foreign goods, whose description suggested he was referring to Chinese items.

“Friends, on the night of May 6, Operation Sindoor had started with the strength of arms, but now, this Operation Sindoor will move forward with jan bal (people’s strength)…. Every citizen should take responsibility and become a partner in the nation’s development.

“If we have to make this resolve, that to build a developed India by 2047 and take our economy in the near term from the 4th to the 3rd position globally, we will not use any foreign goods. We must encourage traders across villages to take the pledge that no matter how much profit they make, they will not sell foreign goods,” Modi said.

Modi did not name China, but the ubiquitous and all-encompassing presence of Chinese goods in the lives of Indians — from cheap smartphones and paraphernalia to toys, from idols to Holi colours, from bulbs and torches to electronic gadgets, from watches and footwear to readymade clothing and umbrellas and raincoats — cannot be wished away.

The poor and the middle class of India prefer Chinese goods as they are affordable compared to made-in-India products. The Opposition has often criticised the Modi government’s efforts towards an “Atmanirbhar Bharat” by pointing to the heavy reliance on Chinese goods.

At Gandhinagar, Modi acknowledged this dependence when he spoke of Lord Ganesh idols that come from abroad, but betrayed a racial tone when he said they had “small eyes that don’t even open properly”.

“The colours used in Holi, too, are foreign-made,” he added.

Modi urged people to go home and make a list of all the foreign goods they use in their daily life and strike them out for the sake of the country.

“If we have to save the country, build and develop the country, then Operation Sindoor is not just the responsibility of the soldiers. It is also the responsibility of the 140 crore people of the country,” he said.

Modi said he was not asking people to throw away the foreign goods already in their possession, but not to buy such items in the future. He added that “barring 1-2 per cent goods that are not manufactured in India, everything else is now made here”.

“Everything is available here, we should be proud of our brands. We should take pride in made-in-India products. Operation Sindoor has to be won not just with the strength of the armed forces but with people’s strength,” he said.

Ironically however, as Modi sought to target Chinese goods, the official X handle of the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh posted a news report celebrating the proposal by seven Chinese footwear companies to invest in the state. Modi represents the Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh.

“China’s leading footwear companies will invest in Uttar Pradesh. This investment is for two proposed footwear parks in Kanpur and Agra. It is estimated that this will employ 10 lakh people,” the post in Hindi said.

Nehru blamed

Modi also sought to take oblique swipes at Jawaharlal Nehru, even as he paid tributes on X to the country’s first Prime Minister on his death anniversary on Tuesday.

He said the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty was “badly negotiated”, without naming Nehru who had signed the pact with then Pakistan President Ayub Khan. The Modi government has put the treaty in abeyance as a pushback against Pakistan after the Pahalgam terror attack.

“In the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, it was decided that the desilting of dams on J&K rivers wouldn’t be done. The gates didn’t open for 60 years,” Modi said. “I have not done much yet. We have just put it (the treaty) in abeyance, but they (Pakistan) are already sweating,” he added.

He then invoked the Partition to target Nehru. He said that “Mother India was torn into three pieces” and Pakistan captured a part of India with the help of terrorists. He said that then home minister Sardar Patel wanted the Indian Army to take over Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, but his pleas were not heard.

“Pakistan captured a part of Mother India on the strength of terrorists, in the name of Mujahideen. If these Mujahideen had been killed on that day and Sardar Patel’s advice accepted, then this series (of terrorist attacks) that has been going on for the last 75 years would not have been seen,” Modi said.

“For 75 years, we suffered, and what happened in Pahalgam was a distorted form of that attack,” he added.