As part of the anti-retail and anti-Special Economic Zone (SEZ) campaign, Sangh Parivar outfits Swadeshi Jagaran Manch (SJM) and Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) Wednesday held a rally at Jantar Mantar in the capital to draw government’s attention to its policies which could cause “irreparable damage to the nation’s economy.”
In a four-page memorandum to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by All India Convenor of SJM, Muralidhar Rao and All India General Secretary of BMS, Uday Rao Patvardhan, the two organizations said “experience world over shows that once corporate houses enter into retail trade, small traders vanish automatically.”
Carrying placards demanding ouster of MNCs from the country and stopping leading world retailers like Wal-Mart, Carrefour, Metro and others from entering the country, cadres of SJM and BMS raised slogans against them.
Ashwani Mahajan of the SJM told indiaretailing.com “we will oppose the government tooth and nail on the issue of entry of foreign retailers and also would continue our fight to ensure that Indian corporates do not enter the food and grocery retail as this would lead to loss of jobs for over six crore persons.”
Mahajan alongwith Patvardhan of BMS asked the cadres attending the meeting to “get ready for a battle to ensure that these retailers do not enter the country and that government does not pursue a policy of granting fertile agricultural land for setting up of SEZs.”
Hitting out at the UPA government, the SJM and BMS memorandum said “big corporates houses are being allowed and encouraged in the retail sector. Such big giants would snatch the livelihood of crores of small traders by providing jobs to very few. While the country is facing unemployment problem, the entry of these giant retailers would take away the jobs of self-employed persons and make them unemployed.”
They accused the government of “openly protecting and promoting the interests of big corporates.”
The memorandum noted that experience worldwide showed that once corporate houses enter into retail trade, small traders vanish automatically.
Sri Krishna
