Swadeshi Jagran Manch Demands Ban on Cryptocurrencies, Demands Withdrawal of Permissions to Amazon, Flipkart

The resolutions to this effect were passed in the three-day conclave of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) in the last week of December in Gwalior. 

Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) passed resolutions demanding the Union government to ban cryptocurrencies in the country.

It also demanded that all permissions granted to e-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart be withdrawn from immediate effect.

“Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc should not be recognised as an asset or digital asset because it will indirectly become a medium of exchange like currency”, the resolution on cryptocurrencies read.

Cautioning against cryptocurrencies, it said cryptocurrencies can be used for terror-financing in the country.

Referring to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), it said the law relating to digital currency should be framed quickly and the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) should be considered as a legal tender.

Earlier, the Union government had proposed that it would table a bill on cryptocurrency in the just-concluded Winter Session of Parliament to facilitate the creation of an official digital currency by the RBI. The government did not table the bill in this session. The re-worked bill is expected to be tabled in the Budget session of Parliament.

In another resolution in the same conclave, the SJM demanded that all activities of e-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart-Walmart in the country must be stopped immediately.

The resolution accused the e-commerce giants of indulging in illegal and arbitrary practices to kill competition and small sellers.

“Multinational e-commerce companies such as Amazon and Walmart/Flipkart are blatantly contravening and operating uncontrolled in India. It’s well known that Amazon and Flipkart hold 80% of online space. Discounts offered by them are adversely impacting offline markets also. They are luring customers by offering high discounts, advertising aggressively to communicate such offers to the general public. Public is attracted to them more for discounts than convenience. This trend is adversely impacting the neighbourhood shops and kirana stores”, the resolution read.

It also accused the warehouses of Flipkart and Amazon of providing poor work environment to the workers like long working hours, no medical facilities and medical leave etc.

And all this is happening in connivance of the senior government functionaries. Demanding action against such government officers, it said, “As soon as there is a trace of government officers, including people sitting in the high offices, gaining from these companies, directly or indirectly, they should be sent on leave to facilitate fair investigation of the whole matter; and be punished for their offenses.”

In October, the Organiser had reported the Reuters findings on how Amazon was manipulating its platform in India to promote its private labels.

“The documents reveal how Amazon’s private-brands team in India secretly exploited internal data from Amazon.in to copy products sold by other companies, and then offered them on its platform. The employees also stoked sales of Amazon private-brand products by rigging Amazon’s search results so that the company’s products would appear, as one 2016 strategy report for India put it, “in the first 2 or three … search results” when customers were shopping on Amazon.in” Reuters had reported.

The SJM resolution read “Amazon in India has become so powerful that it can pick winners or losers, destroy small businesses, raise prices on consumers and put employees out of work.”

Amazon pretends as if it is helping the small players and startups but in reality, it is gobbling them up slowly and slowly.

“Amazon meets with startups with proposals to invest, then launches competing products that are highly detrimental to growth of the startups as well as the culture of entrepreneurship in the country. Amazon is on a spree to acquire brick and mortar retail outlets along with its e-commerce retail activities. Its investment in Shoppers Stop and More retail chain are some major steps in this direction,” the SJM resolution read.

Expressing its concerns over environmental issues, the SJM demanded that the Union government should focus on resolving the multiple environmental issues in the country like dropping water level, landslide etc. In Bharat’s Vedic literature, there are multiple references about preserving and protecting environment.