Merchants to launch a nationwide movement against e-commerce companies like Amazon and Flipkart; Protests, marches and rallies to begin from 13 November

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) will launch a nationwide stir against all e-commerce companies, including Amazon and Flipkart, which are violating the Indian government’s FDI policy. CAT says that these companies are destroying the country’s retail business. CAIT has described the issue as extremely fatal for the business of the country’s traders and said that this stir is a fight to save the existence of 7 crore traders of the country.

CAIT has already complained to Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on these issues against the e-commerce companies. The Commerce Ministry has also sought a response from Amazon and Flipkart. Apart from this, CAIT has also lodged a petition in the Jodhpur Bench of Rajasthan High Court on this issue. Despite this, Amazon and Flipkart, continue to sell goods on their portal for less than the cost price, by giving huge discounts on products, artificially controlling the sales on their portals, routing more orders on their portals to sellers of their choice and have also not desisted from influencing market prices. Therefore, this issue is becoming very big and serious for the country’s retail business, says CAIT.

CAIT National President BC Bhartia and National General Secretary Praveen Khandelwal strongly criticized the attitude of Amazon and Flipkart and said that CAIT is starting a national movement soon on this issue. To determine its outline, CAIT has called an emergency meeting of its National Governing Council in New Delhi on November 10, which will include business leaders from all the states of the country.

Bhartia and Khandelwal informed about the different phases of the movement and said that on November 13, the business delegation of CAIT will submit a memorandum to all MPs of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha from across the country. On 20 November, dharna will be organized in about 200 cities in all the states of the country. On 25 November, merchant marches will be held in more than 500 districts of the country and the District Collector will be given a memorandum in the name of the Prime Minister. Protest marches will be organized in more than 1 thousand cities of the country against the unethical trade practices of e-commerce companies.

On December 2, merchant rallies will be held in all the state capitals, in which thousands of traders from across the state will be participating. On the same day, a delegation of CAIT will submit a memorandum to the Chief Ministers of all states. It was also informed that a rally of prominent business leaders from all over the country will be held in Delhi till December 10, which will witness participation of thousands of traders from across the country. There will be a three-day national convention in Delhi in January, in which more than 10 thousand traders from all over the country will be participating.

Bhartia and Khandelwal said that apart from traders, Swadeshi Jagran Manch will also be included in the stir along with traders in transport sector, small scale industries, farmers, hawkers, consumers and entrepreneurs too.

Leaders of national organizations of all these sections of retail have been invited to the meeting to be held in Delhi on 10 November.