RSS-affiliate Swadeshi Jagran Manch to oppose FDI in ecommerce, food processing

May 08, 2016 11:23 am | Updated October 18, 2016 03:02 pm IST - New Delhi

Up in arms against the Narendra Modi government over some of its key economic decisions, an RSS-affiliate has decided to oppose FDI in ecommerce, food processing and marketing sectors.

The Swadeshi Jagran Manch, a key affiliate of BJP’s ideological mentor, has decided to pass a resolution against the key economic reform measures of the BJP-led government at its national council meeting slated later this month.

“We are against the government’s decision to allow FDI in ecommerce and the food processing and marketing sectors. We will urge the government to take back its decisions as these will go against the interests of small shopkeepers. We will pass a resolution against it at our national council meet,” SJM’s national co-convener Ashwani Mahajan told PTI.

The Manch has held the view that FDI in ecommerce was coming in an “illegal” way earlier and allowing it now amounts to rewarding those who had been flouting the rules and circumventing the law.

The Manch will meet in Bhopal for the annual meeting of its national council on May 21 and 22.

Mr. Mahajan said ecommerce companies have been adopting “predatory pricing” by allowing heavy discounting on products which are adversely affecting the small Indian shopkeepers.

“These companies are incurring huge losses by adopting predatory pricing of products and their sole purpose in doing so is to capture the huge Indian consumer market, that will render the traditional shopkeepers jobless,” he said.

It is a reality that such transactions have made life easy and products come cheap, he said.

He said though ecommerce is not so prevalent in purchase of products of daily use, online buying is on the rise.

The SJM leader said there are nearly 2,000 small and big portals involved in ecommerce, though most transactions are limited to a few big ones.

Mr. Mahajan apprehended if ecommerce continues to grow at the present pace, it may reach 4 per cent of GDP by the year 2020.

In 2009, total retail business of ecommerce companies was hardly Rs 6,000 crore, which shot up to Rs. 78,000 crore in 2013.

The SJM leader said even chemists have been effected by it as some portals are also offering discounts on medicines in the Indian market.

The SJM has been frequently opposing government’s decisions. It had earlier protested against field trial of genetically modified (GM) mustard crop and the policy on intellectual property rights, among other issues.

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