(Image source from: techcrunch.com)

Following the coronavirus pandemic outbreak, there has been a sudden rage against China in Indians, holding them accountable for the spread of the virus. One of the most common applications that have witnessed the wrath of it is Tik Tok.

But, India’s top trending free application on the Google Play Store, “Remove China Apps” has garnered over 5 million downloads and has been programmed to do exactly what it suggests.

The growth in popularity of this application comes from the Himalayan border dispute that fuelled unnecessary backlash against the products from China. This was one of the primary reason why the individuals propagated the banning and boycotting of all the Chinese applications.

Even popular Indian yogi, Baba Ramdev posted on his twitter on Sunday showcasing all the step by step process involved in deleting all of the Chinese applications that he had on his phone. He stated saying that this was of ‘national service’.

The Chinese companies have consistently faced a lot of occasional opposition for years in India, especially under the advocacy of PM Modi’s government which relies on self reliance.

Remove China Apps, which is available for download on Google Play Store contains a logo of a dragon with two broom sticks crossing over. It scans your phone for all the different Chinese applications on your phone including Tik Tok and UC Browser and deletes them from your phone.

Once deleted, it also sends a pop up message saying “You are awesome, no China app found.”

The application has been developed by OneTouch AppLabs and has been specifically developed to help remove all the Chinese applications from the phones. They didn’t respond to any further comments on the situation.

The company, which is based out of Jaipur from western India reported that the development of this application is the first step towards a “self reliant India”.

Both ByteDance and Alibaba, which were approached by Reuters for comments on this application have yet to respond on this.

"Previous boycott calls have focused on Chinese goods, whereas this one especially targets Chinese apps, which could impact Chinese technology companies who have seen India as a crucial market," said Tanvi Madan.

The introduction of such apps put the stakes at a height for companies like ByteDance, which has thought of investing over $1 billion on India and has even amped up the overall hiring process as well.

India, with a population of 1.3 billion, is the biggest driver of the installations of Tik Tok. Even actor Milind Soman reported that he is not using this application anymore.

Nupur Sharma, a spokeswoman for Modi's party further exclaimed saying that it is quite amazing to see the concerned citizens of the country setting an example at this point.

"We ought to hit them where it hurts most,” said Sharma, while also adding on the hashtag of #BoycottChineseProducts.

Even a senior executive working for a China-based company in India reported that amidst all that, the Chinese companies are a big contributor to the Indian economy, especially in the manufacturing sector. Whatever these boycotts are happening will eventually fade away.

By Somapika Dutta