The view of union commerce minister Piyush Goyal (pictured) that many big domestic businesses, including the Tata Group, "had overlooked national interests” and that the Tata Group’s objections to proposed policy changes for e-commerce had upset him, has earned him flak in the media and from the opposition. Goyal made these remarks at an event organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on August 12, 2021. The minister reportedly stated that companies should not just focus on profits or think of bypassing local laws, according to media reports.
The Hindu reported on August 14 that the government had asked the CII to block videos with Goyal’s comments. "Two links to those videos on Goyal’s speech shared with journalists were now marked private and blocked. The CII and Goyal’s office did not respond to a request for comment,” noted The Mint on August 15.
The Mint stated that Goyal’s comments on the Tatas came after Reuters last month reported the conglomerate was among the most vociferous in telling the government in a July meeting that proposed e-commerce rules will have a major impact on its business and bar its joint venture partners like Starbucks from selling goods on Tata’s shopping websites. The proposed rules are wide-ranging in nature, affecting multiple aspects and sectors beyond just e-tailers like Flipkart, Amazon India and their flash sales and deep discounts.
"Goyal’s fears largely reflect the fear of the traders’ community,” notes Business India (August 15, 2021). Merchants are among the core Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters.
Opposition parties condemned the language used by the minister. "Calling (domestic companies’) work against nation’s interest is shameful ... CII should demand an apology instead of helping (Goyal) by pulling down the video,” said Priyanka Chaturvedi, a lawmaker and opposition leader. Congress spokeswoman Supriya Shrinate called Goyal’s remarks "undignified.”
Online news magazine BusinessToday.in stated on August 14 that "Goyal has also repeatedly criticized Amazon and Flipkart for allegedly bypassing foreign investment rules for e-commerce. This week, he also invoked the ‘Quit India’ movement in parliament as he welcomed a court order that allowed an antitrust probe of the two companies to continue.”
Support for Goyal has come in from The Confederation of All India Traders, who welcomed his stand, saying it was "highly unfortunate” that Tata was opposing government’s e-commerce rules, reported BusinessToday.in.
Quoting a "little bird,” The Hindu’s Businessline stated on August 15 that Goyal was given a dressing down by Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the tirade against the Tata group at the CII summit. "Goyal is understood to have called Tata group chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran to explain but the latter did not take his call. The minister then called up Banamali Agarwala, president, infrastructure, defence and aerospace at Tata Sons — the man at the receiving end of Goyal’s outburst at the summit — and apologized to him. We understand that he followed it up with an email to the chairman. Top industrialists are puzzled over the whole episode,” stated the news item.
Another business house, information technology giant Infosys, was the target of an attack by Panchjanya, a weekly journal with roots in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ruling BJP’s ideological mentor. A four-page cover story in a recent issue asked whether "anti-national power is trying to hurt India’s economic interests through it (Infosys)” and questioned whether an anti national conspiracy could be behind the recently made known glitches on India’s tax filing websites handled by Infosys.
On September 5, NDTV.com reported that RSS spokesperson Sunil Ambedkar tweeted that the views expressed in the piece are not of the organization but of the author. "Panchjanya is not (the) mouthpiece of the RSS and the said article or opinions expressed in it should not be linked with the RSS,” he said. The magazine, however, is published by the RSS.