Retail : a Past Re-Tale....

A chilly atmosphere in Nasik as I write this blog; I was hoping to just check my mail and go to sleep with a blanket over my head as I enjoy the best few hours among the 24 available (and believe me that Nasik in winter is the best place 2 sleep @ night - tucked up in a blanket, warm and snug!) My plans were delayed as I read the news about the day's events. One report awakened the part in me which was asleep and helping switch off other systems too - not Harvinder Singh's brave act (that was due since long, the volcano is spitting fire) but the Cabinet approval for 51% FDI in Multi-Brand Retail is what caught my attention; and its deep economic repercussions as I see it are unpleasant. Readers might remember that I had posted about FDI in the Media Sector in my blog Media's Masters.... ; I continue in the same vein to reinforce my statement as to how this last move is another attack on our nation by Sonia Gandhi and her minions.

The Government offers the excuses of double digit inflation and low capital for this necessary step; they offer a host of pros, but I smell shit !!

Firstly, the short-term impact of a foreign retail giant's store in India at lower prices would be its encroachment on the market of the medium scale retail industry; a majority of which is run by local family-owned merchant shops which has the highest employment number in India after the agriculture sector. They speak of cutting down in intermediaries in agro-products; what about bringing the government protected "dalals" to book who rob the customers and don't pay the farmers their dues? (hardly paid 5-10 % as cost price to the farmers) It were the dalals who robbed and harassed the farmers till now; retail giants would add to that. (given the condition in which retail giants can offer so low prices - Chinese Workers are part of a big example as to how cost-cutting initiatives are managed at the expense of the workers) A staggering 80% of Walmart's suppliers are Chinese. Why can't GOI execute waste management and cost effective measures instead of harping on about how FDI would help the case? Why do you let tons of wheat go waste when it can feed so many people and ease inflation - just because you don't care?!! You speak of Technology and Development; for a change, try and support our home-grown firms and back them! Ease norms for them so that they can set up retail stores and run them effectively instead of smothering them and allowing foreign investment even when it is unnecessary! Where is the account of the huge sugercane scandal? Exporting cheaply and buying back at premium - undercutting the entire supply-demand dynamics and earning a cut both ways - crooks!

Secondly, in the long term, this move is an attack on the nation and its economy; it is a move to blunt the small and medium scale industry and put them out of business eventually by concentrating power into the hands of foreign firms -  a move towards dependency on the west when my country has the potential to be self-sufficient! Under the pretext of some cockamamy reasons, this is another methodical cut on this great nation's very being. As mentioned earlier, the country will be flooded with sub-standard Chinese supplies; China will play a greater role in India's economy by controlling retail supplies, FMCG goods and what-not ! As far as the 30% supply clause goes, it is said to violate WTO norms on GATT (General Agreement on Tariff and Trade) and hence can't be implemented as stated by GOI as it will attract a penalty if complained against on the international forum. Thus, it leads to a dual-dependency on the west and China - the horizon of a nation where a spineless, selfish government is hell-bent to cripple the very people they represent; to squeeze the last drop from this huge mass! By extinguishing businessmen from the country and setting up these crutches, you are making my country handicapped. When this country's businessmen possess the potential to buy big foreign car and steel firms, how dare you think you can stop them?! Physically, the nation is free - but take a closer look, my friends, this is not freedom! This is slavery! Our freedom is being sold in the open market and what are we going to do? I don't want to be dependent on foreign countries for my existence. This cheating has to stop; this constant insult and abuse of my motherland has to stop. Sonia Gandhi and her gang of rogues are wreaking havoc! They have waged a war against our nation and spreading the poisonous venom in every sector of growth; They have gnawed through the education system like rats; They have polluted the country with their thoughts and are dismantling and selling it like spares to the powers abroad!

Yes, FDI has helped; to a certain extent it is needed but in the right domains. The supply chain management has been something we have messed up with nearly 35-40% wastage in food and vegetables. Foreign Investment in food and vegetable supply chain management would help the cause and not in the overall retail structure. The investment is our need and is a universal unwritten code for co-existence but anything above 50% is a free passage to decision making in the country; and no-one but us Bhaaratiyas should have the power of making decisions about our country, no-one else! Instead of improving what is already there or rather perfecting it, this approach is more so of bypassing the process. Weed out the harmful elements before anything else! Intellectuals like Manmohan Singh, P. Chidambaram and others have rented their souls to the devil! Gandhi, she was never a Bhaaratiya; they are, or are they? Even after sound understanding of economics, our PM chooses to not act; to not do the needful and let criminals have their say! Let devils screw the nation lest he loses favour with Madam-ji. My fellow countrymen, a day might dawn when this country becomes a Foreign Direct Investment - a dumping ground of the west! A trial zone for China! A puppet in the hands of others where they command, and we do! A day might dawn when FDI start ruling our defence systems and our administration systems wholly! These are dark times and darker days I see ahead with this unchecked foreign invasion. Recollect our history, my friends - it was because Ambhikumar helped Alexander that the Greeks could defeat King Porus to gain a foothold in this nation; it was because of Jaichand of Kannauj that Muhammed Ghori could defeat Prithviraj Chauhan to establish the foundation for a future Mughal Sultanate. It were our own men who helped our enemies defeat us; it was because we were not vigilant; it was because we were careless and it was because we thought - "Chalta Hai!" History teaches us a lot, my friends - and it speaks volumes in terms of wisdom and knowledge; it whispers softly so that we do not repeat our mistakes and end up enslaved. The rules might have changed; the battlefields might have changed; the weapons might have changed but the traitor lives on inside such disgraceful, self-centered and weak men! This approval is another betrayal! Barack Obama did not visit India to offer us goodies! He had come here to ask for our help; it was because USA needed India if its economy were to be re-strengthened! Every nation does (and should too) think about its own interests before anything else! Our culture teaches us not to encroach and threaten other nations/cultures for betterment of the self; but it also teaches us to protect our interest, our freedom, our life if it were to be attacked. That time is here; and that time is passing by, leaving in its wake - a mass of ignorant men who will tomorrow kill each-other, one's own family, one's own countrymen in a bid for survival; We'l be in a state of panic, willing to embrace anything for survival; but can there be survival without freedom? I continue the war and so many along with me - I protest to start with and I will buy my needs and my wants from domestic small and medium scale merchants only; but that alone won't suffice - a collective campaign is needed. The government might have forgotten their duty, we must not. I appeal to you, my friends - support the interest of our own countrymen or we might not have a country to be called our own. For the moment, I hope what the reports say would stay true and there would not be immediate investment as far as this topic is concerned; In a hope that a "real Bhaaratiya" Govt be established at the centre in 2014 which understands and carries out its duties. Dear Lord, please help us....

Jai Hind!