The Atmanirbhar Paradox: “Boycott China” for Citizens, Shanghai Sourcing for Piramal

Posted on 18th November, 2025 (GMT 19:05 hrs)

ABSTRACT

This letter interrogates the glaring contradiction between the BJP-led Indian government’s public calls for boycotting Chinese goods and Piramal Pharma’s own officially listed Shanghai “Sourcing Office,” highlighting how nationalist rhetoric is imposed on ordinary citizens while crony conglomerates quietly expand global supply chains. Situating Ajay Piramal within a wider system of ruling-party proximity—ranging from electoral bonds and PM-CARES contributions to corporate-state entanglements—the letter questions how the BJP’s notion of “anti-nationalism” conveniently excludes large corporations even when their actions allegedly harm Indian retirees (as in the DHFL resolution) or depend heavily on China despite territorial tensions. It argues that nationalism has become a burdensome commodity forced upon the masses while exempting favoured corporates who simultaneously benefit from state patronage and globalized profit structures. Ultimately, it challenges the moral and political legitimacy of this selective patriotism and demands transparency regarding Piramal Pharma’s China-linked operations amid government-led narratives of “Atmanirbhar Bharat.”

To
Mr. Ajay Piramal,
(and reportedly a long-time beneficiary of India’s selective nationalism)

Sub: China Annexes Land, Piramal Pharma Sources from China—Yet Citizens Are Told to Be “AtmaNirbhar”

Dear Mr. Piramal, 

I hope this letter finds you well in whichever global time zone your version of “Atmanirbhar” currently operates—Shanghai, perhaps? According to your own Piramal Pharma’s Global Footprint page⤡, the Shanghai, China – Sourcing Office⤡ appears to be thriving under your stewardship, even as your political allies thunder “Boycott Chinese Goods!” at the rest of the population.

Ordinary Indians can be forgiven for their confusion. The Prime Minister has repeatedly sermonized—during festivals, rallies, and televised moral lectures⤡—about the patriotic duty to avoid Chinese “phoren” imports and embrace “Make in India” and “Atmanirbhar Bharat.” Yet while citizens were hectored into such advertized “nationalist” consumption, Piramal Pharma was (reportedly/allegedly) quietly sourcing, and expanding inside China. One rule for the masses; global exceptions for the classes of “haves”.

Perhaps this is your interpretation of “national integration”—the kind where the nation integrates the costs while your corporation integrates the profits.

Your proximity to the ruling establishment is, of course, no secret.
Your kinship ties to the BJP-aligned Ambani family; the publicly reported Flashnet episode involving then–Power Minister Piyush Goyal; the ₹85 crore in Electoral Bonds from Piramal-linked entities; and the ₹25 crore contribution to the ever-opaque PM CARES Fund—all stand recorded in official disclosures… so on and so forth⤡. One might say your patriotism has been generously underwritten.

But the deeper moral rupture lies elsewhere.

When your finance empire—through the DHFL resolution—reportedly/allegedly/seemingly expropriated and dispossessed lakhs of senior citizens and numerous NRIs, many of whom lost the savings of an entire lifetime, does that not enter the realm of BJP’s so-called branding of “anti-nationalism”?
Especially when the majority of DHFL’s victims are Hindus⤡, the very community the BJP repeatedly invokes in its Hindutva-laced rhetoric of protection, purity, and patriotism?

The above poster is intended purely as a strategic critique of political economy and ideological structures. Once in a Blue Moon Academia (OBMA) unequivocally upholds the principle of secularism enshrined in the Constitution of India. We firmly believe that communal or sectarian polarizations—whether expressed as Islamophobia or Hinduphobia—are not organic religious conflicts but engineered tendencies, manufactured and weaponized by the forces of private capital and their political allies. Our critique does not target Hinduism, Islam, or any faith or tradition; rather, it exposes the instrumentalization of religion for profiteering, cronyism, and authoritarian consolidation.

If allegedly expropriating mostly Hindu retirees is not considered “anti-national”, one wonders what exactly the term now means.

Meanwhile, China has quietly annexed some 38,000 sq km of Indian territory (or more/less, we do not know!), as documented by OBMA⤡ — and yet the BJP, so vocal on “Hindu Akhand Bharat“, remains curiously silent. To make matters even more disorienting, the Maps of India served from different countries display entirely different cartographies. After witnessing these shifting fluid borders, I find myself genuinely vexed—though I increasingly prefer to call myself an Earthian in this age of planetary climate crises.

This brings us to the most uncomfortable question:

How does one loudly celebrate “Bharat First” while one’s pharma empire depends on Chinese sourcing lines and simultaneously destroys the economic security of Indian households?
Is there a special clause in the BJP manual that reads:
AtmaNirbhar for the people, ChinaNirbhar for the chosen corporates (Adani-Ambani-Piramal), and DharmaNirbhar only when economically convenient?

Citizens are scolded for importing Ganesh idols; corporations, meanwhile, freely (and reportedly) import molecules, precursors, intermediates, and API services with complete impunity.

Given this extraordinary contrast, a basic clarification becomes unavoidable:

Is Piramal Pharma importing materials from China, exporting to China, or both?
Your website labels it a “Sourcing Office”, yet the public is never informed what is sourced, for whom, or at what volume. When the government commands ordinary Indians to boycott Chinese goods, surely transparency from its corporate confidants is the bare minimum.

If this is the new definition of patriotism, one wonders whether your Shanghai office has quietly become the beating heart of “New Viksit Bharat.”

In light of all this, your public posture resembles not nationalism but strategic, corporatized multinational(MNC)-ism dressed in illusive patriotic vocabulary.
Or more bluntly:

When the BJP says “Boycott China,” it apparently means “You, not him.”

Congratulations, Mr. Piramal, on achieving what political theorists once considered impossible:
You have converted nationalism into a luxury that only the poor are forced to purchase—while corporate tycoons outsource, offshore, and appropriate without consequence.

And by the BJP’s own ideological metrics, rhetorical tropes, and selective definitions, your actions fall squarely into the category they so freely weaponize against dissenters:
“anti-national.” 

As the Gita upholds paripraśna — honest questioning as a path to truth — we claim that right, even if today’s crony oligarchs treat democratic inquiry as rebellion.

Hypothetically Yours,

Debeprasad (sic) Sadhan (patriarchal insertion!?) Bandopadhyay (sic)

A citizen tired of “subsidizing” crony hypocrisy

On behalf of Once in a Blue Moon Academia (OBMA)⤡

नमस्ते अस्तु मा मा हिंसीः

लड़ेंगे या मरेंगे!

इंक़लाब ज़िंदाबाद!

COPY TO:

1. The Hon’ble Prime Minister’s Office, Government of India
2. Shri A.H. Laddhad, The Hon’ble Prothonotary and Senior Master, Bombay High Court (Case No. S/42/2025)