NEW DELHI: After its blistering attack on infotech major Infosys recently, Hindi magazine Panchajanya, which is linked to the RSS, lit into e-commerce retail behemoth Amazon, likening it to British colonisers and calling it ‘East India Company 2.0’, in its upcoming edition. Amazon quickly rebutted the allegations, explaining how it has offered its platform to a large number of small grocery stores and exporters to sell their goods and services.
The latest Panchajanya cover story has its genesis in a recent whistleblower complaint against Amazon allegedly bribing Indian government officials, funneling the dirty money under the head of legal fees. The report examines “how Amazon resorts to bribery, and why it poses a risk to the entrepreneurship of the country, besides prestige, culture and economic freedom of India,” its editor Hitesh Shankar said.
It claimed at least 40,000 small shops in India have shut down because of Amazon’s expanding footprint. The article is in line with concerns within RSS affiliates of the growing influences of e-commerce platforms in consumer behaviour at the cost of neighbourhood outlets.
For its part, Amazon claimed it was empowering kirana stores and connecting individual artisans and exporters with the global market. It said over three lakh sellers boarded its platform during the pandemic, which included 75,000 neighbourhood shops.
Reacting to the controversy, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said, “The kind of allegations on Amazon that have come to light are very serious and cannot be ignored.”