Why did India ban it?
Anti-China posturing by rightwing BJP PM Modi.
It’s a little more than posturing, India and China have been at odds for a while. They’re frequent competitors for resources on the open market, which China has a better position in. China has also antagonized India over their borders in the Himalayas in Kashmir, as well as encroached on Nepal’s borders (which India views as a necessary buffer state and an in-kind extension of Indian territory).
Modi’s for sure been causing a lot of anti-democratic ruckus domestically, but his anti-China stance is pretty valid.
I am from India. BJP’s position is a literal dead cat strategy, considering how he never spoke on the Galwan Valley territory issue and instead said through ANI briefing said that all is okay. He is a paper tiger, and in response to that incident, he banned 59 Chinese apps/e-commerce stores from India, which is pathetic if being nice about it. The whole world comfortably uses Tiktok, AliExpress, Taobao et al except for India.
His anti-China “stance” holds as much weight as Trump’s did in USA, when his own clothing lines were all manufactured in China. BJP is beyond just anti-democratic, they love majoritarian Hindutva extremism.
The border conflicts have a history that cannot just be reduced to “China encroachment”. It goes all the way back to territory lines drawn by Britishers for India, Nepal and China.
Shame they didn’t reveal what he ordered.
TheOnion?
