Bhagirath Place

NEW DELHI: Bhagirath Place in Chandni Chowk, the city’s go-to hub for electronic goods, is awash with Chinese products. But after imports from the novel coronavirus-hit country has dwindled since December last year, the sales have now been affected by the riots in northeast Delhi. As a result of the double whammy, traders are reporting drop in sales of more than 75%.

“Chaliya bhai, chaliye, corona aa gaya hai,” shouted a porter asking for space on the narrow, congested lanes, the black humour perhaps perfectly natural in a place that depends inordinately on Wuhan — the epicentre of the viral outbreak in China — for the electronics on the shelves. Masks are ubiquitous in the market today, obscuring the faces of most people from porters to sellers to buyers.

Sitting idle awaiting customers at his fairy lights shop, Praveen Kumar, 56, said from behind a mask that he hadn’t seen a slump like this even at the height of a hyper-nationalist campaign to boycott Chinese goods. “Fairy lights, lanterns, home lighting, fans, hot-water bottles and electronics — nothing is selling,” muttered Kumar, who mostly stocks Chinese products.

Roshan Kumar, at another shop, told of a similarly woeful time. “The Chinese products were attracting very few buyers, and then came the riots,” he said. Bharat Ahuja, who heads the Delhi Electrical Traders Association, said demand for electronic goods exists, but no one comes to Bhagirath Place due to both the virus and the riots. “If the trend continues for another month, we will face a crisis,” Ahuja said darkly.

In complete contrast, the neighbouring surgical equipment market near Raam Gali is overwhelmed by a mad rush for masks and hand sanitisers. Common surgical masks costing Rs 2 apiece are flying off the shelves even at Rs 30 per unit. N-95 masks, available for Rs 150 on Wednesday, was selling for Rs 250 on Thursday. And as a seller disclosed, “Dettol hand sanitiser is not available even at double its price.”

Many wished the central government put into place a regulatory mechanism. Ahuja recalled intervening with friends in the surgical market a few days ago to help some doctors. “A government hospital had exhausted its store of masks,” he explained.

Sanjay Bhargav, member of the Chandni Chowk Sarv Vyapar Mandal, was quite critical of what was happening. Tagging different authorities, he tweeted that surgical and medicine sellers were cheating people and charging exorbitant rates for masks and sanitisers and requested both the state and central governments to step in, especially at Bhagirath Place.

