New Delhi: Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant has come under fire from the ‘Swadeshi’ lobby after he tweeted a story detailing Amazon’s India plans.
Kant had Thursday tweeted a report detailing Amazon’s plans to export $10 billion worth of Make in India goods by 2025.
Amazon will export $10 billion Make in India goods by 2025, says Jeff Bezos https://t.co/jGqb9mWCXB
— Amitabh Kant (@amitabhk87) January 16, 2020
Kant, who was earlier the secretary in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, was appointed the CEO of Niti Aayog in 2016 after his retirement. The Narendra Modi government has since given him two extensions. He will serve till June 2021.
Responding to his tweet, Ashwani Mahajan of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch, a body affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), criticised Kant’s “unending love” for Amazon at a time “crores of small traders are being hurt by the deep discounts given by the company”.
Shri @amitabhk87 ji We r perturbed by your unending love for Amazon, given the scenario that crores of small traders are on streets persecuted by deep discounts and flaunting of rules by the company, @CCI_India and ED instituting enquiry against their wrongs. CC @narendramodi ji https://t.co/yLbi2H3tAw
— ASHWANI MAHAJAN (@ashwani_mahajan) January 16, 2020
Mahajan followed it up with another tweet asking Kant to “side with the people” — shopkeepers and workers — pointing out that the government has made its stand clear that deep discounting is not acceptable.
Unending love for Amazon of CEO @NITIAayog says @swadeshimanch while government makes its position very clear that deep discounting is not acceptable. Sh @amitabhk87 ji side with the people- shopkeepers, workers and SSIs NO GIMICKS https://t.co/pQm9HofOsZ
— ASHWANI MAHAJAN (@ashwani_mahajan) January 17, 2020
He also praised Piyush Goyal’s statement that Amazon’s India investment is not a favour to India. The commerce minister had also warned marketplaces to stop using loopholes in laws, warning them of strict action.
Kudos @PiyushGoyal you are absolutely right. Kindly enlighten Shri @amitabhk87 also, because he seems to be deeply impressed by the company especially $1 billion. Amazon’s fresh $1B investment in India is not a big favor, says Trade Minister https://t.co/6GfUhfc8wb
— ASHWANI MAHAJAN (@ashwani_mahajan) January 16, 2020
The Swadeshi lobby has been at the forefront of the opposition against foreign e-market places. Anti-trust regulator Competition Commission of India (CCI) has also launched an investigation against Amazon and Flipkart to see if these marketplaces offering deep discounts are killing competition.
Many traders under the aegis of the Confederation of all India Traders or CAIT have been staging protests across the country against Amazon.
Criticism after Modi cold shoulder
The criticism comes at a time the Narendra Modi government has snubbed Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos.
Bezos, who is on a three-day visit to India, had sought meetings with top government leaders but the appointments were not given, sources told ThePrint. During his visit in 2014, the Amazon chief had met the prime minister.
The BJP has also been attempting to appease the traders’ lobby ahead of the Delhi elections. The critical stance of the Bezos-owned Washington Post over some of the Modi government’s recent decisions, including the scrapping of Article 370, may have caused the cold shoulder to the Amazon chief.
Foreign e-marketplaces have found it difficult to operate in India under growing opposition from the strong Swadeshi lobby that has found a willing ear in the government.
India implemented new rules with effect from 1 February 2019, which placed restrictions on entities linked to the e-commerce companies selling their goods in the marketplace.
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