Chinese goods boycott call evaporates into thin air, businessmen say they can't ignore market demand!
By our Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, Oct 15: Boycotting Chinese goods was in the air in the last Diwali. With the boycott call evaporating into the thin air the Diwali markets in Guwahati and other places in the State are glutted with Chinese lights, crackers etc.
This reporter, who talked to a few wholesalers at Fancy Bazar in the city on Sunday, came to know that Chinese lights are in great demand in the market. “We were reluctant to procure Chinese goods due to the unofficial boycott on Chinese products in the State last year. However, Diwali revelers have been demanding Chinese lights more than anything else in the market. The huge demand of Chinese lights in the market made us procure them. We simply can’t make our business suffer losses,” a wholesaler told this reporter who saw Chinese goods glutting the market. The market has varied designs of Chinese lights at varied prices.
When asked as to why people hunker after Chinese lights setting the local and traditiol earthen lamps aside, a person buying Chinese lights said: “We celebrate Diwali for two days. If we’re to glow earthen lamps with mustard oil for two days we need around a litre of fuel. Chinese lights are much cheaper than mustard oil. We need to mage everything within our budgets.”
This is not the fact that Assamese traditiol chakis (earthen lamps) are not seen in the market. Artisans are seen sitting with earthen lamps. Sharing his feelings with this reporter, an artisan said: “With the demand of chakis falling fast in the State, we still hope to do a brisk business during the Diwali. There’re still a few people who prefer chakis to other imported Diwali goods. Two days are to go for the Diwali. If we’ve to recover the cost for making chakis and making profits we can do it only in the remaining two days. If we miss this festival, we can never recover our investment on ceramics. We can get a succour if the State Government looks at us with sympathy in form of loans and subsidies so as to keep the age-old industry alive in the face of modernity.”