New Delhi: E-commerce giant Amazon on Monday highlighted its positive impact on sellers, artisans and small businesses including distribution and logistics partners, attempting to play down criticism by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-affiliated magazine Panchjanya.
“Three lakh new sellers joined us during the pandemic… of which 75,000 were local neighborhood shops (shops) in 450+ cities (selling) furniture, stationery, consumer electronics, beauty products, mobile phones, textiles, medical products… e-commerce The company said in a statement.
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Outlining its export program, Amazon said it has helped more than 70,000 Indian businesses sell ‘made in India’ products across the world.
“Amazon’s export program is seeing a boom… today there are 70,000+ exporters from metros as well as Tier II, III and IV cities, selling hundreds of millions of ‘Made in India’ products to customers in 200 countries across the world. Have been — really taking (it) global,” the e-commerce said.
Amazon’s statement comes as the United States-headquartered e-commerce company called “East India Company 2.0” in the latest cover story by Panchajanya.
Panchjanya editor Hitesh Shankar tweeted a picture of the new cover earlier in the day, featuring Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and the headline “#Amazon: East India Company 2.0”.
“Panchjanya means the talk of India. Read the next issue. What does Amazon do wrong that it needs a bribe? Why do people see this huge company as a threat to indigenous entrepreneurship, economic freedom and culture?” He tweeted with the new cover.
The cover story, titled “East India Company 2.0”, accuses Amazon of corrupt practices.
“In fact, Amazon also wants to have sole rights on the Indian market. For this, it has started taking steps to encircle the political, economic and personal freedom of the people here.”
The cover story written by Panchjanya Bureau also accused the retail giant of allegedly attacking Hindu values through Prime Video.
The story further said, “It is accused of bribing floating shell companies to take over the e-market platform, bribing policies in its favour, and airing programs against Indian culture through Prime Video. “
The cover story alleges that Amazon invested in India with the promise of helping small merchants get a bigger platform to sell products, but created its own companies to actually do so.
“The company created supplier entities such as Cloudtail and Apperia, in which it had significant stake and indirect control,” the story says, adding that the two companies accounted for 35 percent of all Amazon business.
The article compares Amazon’s strategy to that of the East India Company.
“Today foreign companies are doing the same thing. Amazon is now caught in one such controversy. Following cognizance of some anti-Hindu content in programs like Tandav and Paatal Lok by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and some state governments on its OTT platform Prime Video, the company has apologized,” the article said.
“People had alleged that Prime Video was regularly airing shows that mock Hindu deities and attack family values,” the article said.
Emphasizing on a policy of ‘zero tolerance’ towards corruption, the central government last week said it would investigate allegations against the legal representatives of the firm for allegedly bribing Indian officials.
The RSS-affiliated magazine carried a cover story on Infosys earlier this month in which it accused the company of supporting a “tukde-tukde gang”.
The magazine lashed out at Infosys over the glitches in the GST and the income tax portals developed by it, asking whether any “anti-national force is trying to hurt India’s economic interests through this”.
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