Jaipur, Feb 12 (IANS): Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar has appealed to people to use Swadeshi (local) products to ensure local trade gets a boost.

He said, "Lamps, candles, furniture were coming into our country from outside. This has two side-effects. Our foreign exchange is going out in large quantities and we are simultaneously chopping hands of the traders here."

Dhankhar said this while addressing a memorial lecture organised at the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay National Memorial in Dhankya, Jaipur on Sunday, on the 56th death anniversary of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay.

The Vice President said, “People should use Swadeshi as much as possible.

"There was a time when our economy was among the five fragile countries. With the hard work done in the last decade, we have become the 5th largest economy in the world. Today our foreign exports are more than Rs 600 billion.

"I feel great pain in my mind when I come to know that in 2009 the Indian government gave 5 million US dollars to a foreign university. Why not give it to our university? I would, especially, urge this forum that our industrialists and businessmen should think that this is the time to awaken nationalism. Nationalism is paramount," he said.

Addressing the farmers, he said, "For the first time in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken such a step, which is a matter of great satisfaction for the farmers. He announced Bharat Ratna to Chaudhary Charan Singh, who was a visionary thinker for agriculture. Chaudhary Charan Singh was a universally recognized leader. Chaudhary Saheb does not belong to any caste or family. I appreciate his grandson, who said in the Rajya Sabha that 'I am his grandson, but he belongs to everyone'.”