Mail News Service
Jamshedpur, Jan 15: Singhbhum Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) has joined the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) to protest the arrival of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in India tomorrow.
SCCI members handed a petition addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to East Singhbhum Deputy Commissioner Ravi Shankar Shukla here on Tuesday in this connection.
�We oppose the arrival of the Amazon CEO in India and demand measures to provide relief to small traders and indigenous entrepreneurs who are suffering from crisis due to arrival of e-retail companies in the country. A large number of traders are affected due to such e-retail platforms,� said Suresh Sonthalia, a CAIT representative.
SCCI and CAIT members staged a demonstration at Jamshedpur Collectorate today. They held banners with �Jeff Bezos, Go Back� slogans.
The protestors included Vijay Anand Moonka, Bajrang Lal Agrawal and Anil Modi.
Thousands � potentially hundreds of thousands � of Indian small-business people are planning to give Jeff Bezos an unpleasant welcome on his proposed visit to India.
Members of the a leading Indian small business group, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), say they will mobilize between 100,000 and 500,000 people to protest against the Amazon CEO.
Praveen Khandelwal, CAIT�s secretary general, described his protest plans, saying that he expects people to demonstrate in as many as 300 cities around India.
The demonstrations are planned to hit on Wednesday, the same day Bezos is expected to attend a stadium-sized summit for small businesses being staged by Amazon in the capital, New Delhi.
CAIT members object to Amazon�s efforts to expand into the Indian retail sector, which is dominated outside of cities by small players.
They say Amazon, worth close to $1 trillion, is using its economic muscle to offer deep discounts that smaller members cannot compete with.
Taking a nationalist tone, CAIT National Secretary Sumit Agarwal said on Twitter that his group �will fight this battle against foreign economic terrorists & invaders till the very end.�
Agarwal also posted protest imagery marked �Jeff Bezos Go Back!� It showed Bezos� face being crossed out, next to a backdrop of protesters.
According to sources, citing unnamed sources who know the itinerary, Bezos is due to arrive in India on Wednesday, January 15.
The network says he will attend Smbhav, a summit run by Amazon for small businesspeople.
The event, at New Dehli�s JLN sports stadium, features speakers including Amazon�s top Indian executives as well as senior figures from firms like Google, Visa, HSBC, and Unilever.
Bezos is not listed as a speaker, but both CNBC-TV18 and Bloomberg reported that he would attend.
He is also said to be seeking a meeting with Narendra Modi, India�s Prime Minister, and to make an appearance at a celebrity event for Amazon�s Prime Video service.