Illicit marijuana, explosives, poison on sale; trade body protests against Amazon

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has staged a countrywide protest against alleged instances of sale of banned and restricted items, like marijuana and chemicals used in making bombs through the e-commerce portal Amazon in India. Members of CIAT staged a dharna in more than 1200 cities of more than 500 districts of different states of the country.

In a statement, the CAIT has said that if no concrete action is taken immediately in this matter, then the traders of the country will organise a Bharat Vyapar Bandh to raise their voices. The protestors warned Amazon that, "either they should make their business model according to the law and rules, otherwise prepare to tie their sack bed from India".

The CAIT has demanded that the business model of Amazon and other e-commerce companies should be investigated in a time-bound manner, while like the arrest of Aryan Khan in a drug case, the Amazon officials should also be arrested in the same way, and a sedition case should be registered against Amazon, for facilitating the sale of chemicals in the Pulwama attack. The CAIT has also said that since this issue has taken an inter-state shape, the Union Government should depute its agencies to investigate the case in a time-bound period and the guilty persons should be punished as per the law, and till then, the operations of Amazon portal should be kept suspended.

CAIT National President B C Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said that according to the information received on November 23, a person in Indore city of Madhya Pradesh lodged a complaint against Amazon to the collector in Indore in MP. The complaint alleges that three months ago, his son had ordered poison through Amazon, which he used to commit suicide.

"Before that, the MP Police seized 21 kg and 17 kg of marijuana through two different operations whereas, on the information of MP Police, the Vishakhapatnam police has also seized 48 kg of marijuana facilitated by a sale through Amazon portal. It is very surprising that in 2019, through Amazon's portal, the sale of the chemical of the bombs used in the Pulwama terror attack—including the banned chemical—was also facilitated through Amazon's e-commerce portal, but so far no action has been taken against Amazon officials", the CAIT leaders have said.

Bhartia and Khandelwal have said that illegal activities are going on such a large scale, but till now everyone is sleeping—which poses a big question on the functioning of the government. They have added that these incidents are not new—as the CAIT and others have been making complaints against the misdeeds of big e-commerce companies since 2016, but no concrete action has been taken so far. Regrettably, this sensitive issue has been in the headlines for the last week, but no statement has come from the Central Government or state governments—except the Madhya Pradesh Government, though the retail trade falls under the domain of State Governments.

There is tremendous anger and resentment among the traders of the country regarding this discrimination, and if the government does not act now and prompt action is not taken, then the traders of the traders will be forced to call for a nig nationwide movement, the statement reads.