Champions of the FDI in multi-brand retail in India are giving all sots of logic, ranging from sophistry to illogic, as to how big are the expected gains for the country and its people. What they have always concealed from the people how much gain would be for the investors, the machinery and the people who are bringing them into this country, and the Indian business houses. We have been hearing them talk all the time about how much consumers of this country are going to get benefited from such FDI ventures, and that too in too vague terms. The Union Government has never been transparent even in this matter, perhaps they are yet to calculate how much gain is for the consumers. They have always been trading in hopes, and they wanted us to believe them. That is all.
Let me put matters on record on behalf of consumers in India that recently figured in a seminar organized by Consumers Coordination Council of India. It is important because we are being told that consumers are going to be benefited, since they will be provided many options to choose from.
One of the issues figured in the seminar related to the prices and options of medicines. One journalist participant told the gathering that he had purchased same medicine of three brands with prices printed on the strip – Rs 7, Rs 37, and Rs 97. He showed the strips to the Union Finance Minister and asked why it was so. Finance Minister asked his secretary and the CII chief what was it all about. All of the three agreed that it was unfair. Finance Minister said that appropriate action will be taken in that regard. But no action was taken aftewards.
This is one of the scenario of multiple options, in which patients and their care takers are at the mercy of the doctors. If doctor insists on a particular brand, can a patient afford to have courage of not purchasing the medicine that doctor prescribes?
A patient is an individual consumer. Let us take example of public consumer, like government institution. If they purchase a particular brand on higher price, where other brands are available at cheaper rates, on the ground that certain team of doctors have prescribed, can the country not lose heavily from the exchequer? One should keep in mind that the Government is the biggest public consumers, and the corruption infested Congress led UPA government regime in the last few years has sufficiently shown as to how much money the corrupt political leaders and bureaucrats have been making.
We should take another example from the Railways. Gurudas Das Gupta and many others had alleged even in the parliament that the Ministry of Railways is favouring big business houses at the cost of small time vendors on the railway platforms. It is an open secret that many of the small vendors on the railway platforms across the country lost their means of livelyhood because of the government policy of favouring big business houses, resulting in consumers paying higher costs for goods and services in the railways premises and platforms. No one is benefited except the bigger business houses and certain other persons facilitating the big peoples interests.
There was another issue raised in the council's seminar which was also related to medicines. One of the participant said that he need riboflabin that was earlier available in the medicine strores two decades back. Since it was cheaper and was available at 5 paise per tablet, medicine producers stopped producing the medicine, and came with B-complex capsules as only option. Patients are enforced to consume the substances that they do not need, because only multi-brands of B-complex are available in the market, but not riboflabin alone. Government hospitals as public consumers are purchasing and distributing only B-complex which is net loss for the exchequer also, what to talk about the individual consumers.
Take the example of Government's goods and services too. Consumers are at receiving end in terms of quality, quantity, and regular high prices, and inflated billings in all sectors, may they be LPG gas cylinders, electricity, water, telephone or whatever else.
Then there are many cheater companies who forward false claims in their advertisements. We have advertising council, yet there is no check on false and misleading advertisements, while consumers are being subjected to a well organised system of loot.
We have consumer protection legislation and system in place. But our legislation is too weak to handle the mass exploitation of consumers. Moreover, the justice delivery system for the consumers are cumbersome and discouraging. There are millions of consumer cases pending in consumer courts, and government is not doing the needful.
The other logic of the champions of the FDI in multi-brand retail in India is that small time retailers will be benefited, the falsity of which is well pronounced in the example of railways that supported big business in their premises and platforms. Lakhs of small vendors lost their only means of livelihood.
Champions of FDI trying to make us believe that even farmers will get benefit. There are many reasons to suspect their contention because of our past experience when they allowed big business to play with the agriculture produce and seeds precisely on the same logic, which resulted into suicides of lakhs of farmers across the country.
Therefore, we need to be careful, both the people and all the right thinking good people in the help of affair of the country. Various lobbies are at work for their own benefit and huge profits for their foreign associates. One should know that no foreigner or even the domestic investor is going to make huge investment for establishment of moral and ethical standard in the country. They will be making huge investments for just big profits, whichever way they can, and the cost is to be paid by our country and our people. (EOM)