During the COVID-19 crisis, Amazon Inc highlighted it’s ‘positive impact on small businesses’, noting that over three lakh new sellers have benefited from it’s platform. Panchjanya, a magazine affiliated with the RSS, called Amazon ‘East India Company 2.0’, accusing the company of stifling competition, monopolizing the domestic retail market and promoting selected brands in violation of domestic regulations.
In a rebuttal, Amazon said the company has had a ‘positive impact on small businesses’ – including sellers, artisans and weavers, as well as delivery and logistics partners. ‘Three lakh new sellers joined us during the pandemic, out of which 75,000 were local neighborhood shops (dukaans) from 450+ cities, which sold furniture, stationery, consumer electronics, beauty products, mobile phones, garments, and medical supplies,’ Amazon said in a statement. Amazon also said it had increased the visibility of Indian products in global markets.
Amazon has grown its export program so that today 70,000+ suppliers are selling ‘made in India’ items to customers in 200 countries across the globe – truly taking the company global. A cover story published on September 26 by Panchjanya is titled ‘East India Company 2.0’, available in its October 3 print edition. ‘Whatever the East India Company did in the 18th century to capture India, the same is visible in Amazon’s activities,’ the article says.
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According to the article, Amazon wants to establish a monopoly in India, so it has taken steps to prevent the economic, political, and personal freedom of Indians. Hitting out at Prime Video, the article claims that it has released movies and television series against Indian culture. Amazon has also established many proxy entities, and ‘there have been reports that it has distributed crores in bribes’.
There has been a report that the US e-commerce giant is investigating alleged bribes paid by its legal representatives in India, and that it spent $1.2 billion in legal expenses just to maintain a presence in India during 2018-20. Congress, the main opposition party, has called for a Supreme Court investigation of the alleged bribery case involving Amazon. Earlier, RSS-affiliate Swadeshi Jagaran Manch had also called for action against e-commerce players like Amazon for circumventing laws that harm traders and engaging in unethical business practices.
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