Traders' body CAIT on Thursday said it will launch a national campaign "Halla Bol on e-commerce" from September 15 across the country against foreign e-commerce companies, who are openly violating the e-commerce rules.

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) said that on September 15, trade organisations across the country would organise a dharna at more than one thousand places in different states of the country, while on the other hand, on September 23, a memorandum would be handed over to the collector of each district in the name of the Prime Minister.

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"Apart from this, a memorandum will also be given to the chief minister, MPs and MLAs of each state by September 30. From October 10 to 14, effigies of foreign companies will be burnt in different states by giving them the form of Ravana. During the month-long campaign, the traders will take out rallies in the markets of the country and register their strong protest against foreign e-commerce companies," it said.

BC Bhartia, national president and Praveen Khandelwal, the secretary-general said CAIT will send communication to all political parties of the country to clarify their stand on e-commerce, "The traders of the country will wait for the response of all the parties and a timely decision will be taken about the role of the traders in the upcoming assembly elections and thereafter the Lok Sabha elections."

It also accused foreign e-commerce companies to work under a well-planned conspiracy to dominate and monopolise India's e-commerce business by twisting the laws.

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"When everything has become focused on the vote bank, now even the traders will not hesitate to convert themselves into a vote bank. We want to know from the political spectrum whether they are concerned about the killing of small businesses by the foreign-funded e-commerce companies or not," CAIT said.

The traders' body said it will reach out to big indigenous corporate companies and other companies who are conducting their business activities through traders in the country like Tata, Godrej, Reliance, Hindustan Lever, Patanjali, Kishore Biyani Group, Aditya Birla Group, Amway, Shriram Group, Piramal Group, Coca Cola among others.

The association said, "India's business should remain in India and in the hands of Indian and its benefits should be given to the consumers, traders and industry of the country. Taking this view, the conference opined that since it is fighting against global giants who are more eager to invade India's trade and to prevent these companies the East India Company, it is now necessary to bring all the sections of the country on one platform and only then the e-commerce and retail trade of the country can be saved from the devious clutches of these foreign companies."

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The confederation said the rules of e-commerce framed by the government should be applied equally to all e-commerce companies, whether domestic or foreign so that no company can take the e-commerce business as its hostage.

In a resolution passed at the conference, the CAIT has urged union minister of commerce and consumer affairs, Piyush Goyal that the proposed e-commerce rules should be implemented immediately and the government should not come under any kind of pressure. The 8 crore traders of the country are standing firmly with the government.

First Published:Sept 9, 2021 5:12 PM IST