New Delhi: Merchants in Delhi who normally compete with each other have now united together against their common enemies Amazon and Flipkart. As many as 700 protests took place across different markets in India on a recent Wednesday. In a statement, Amazon and Walmart said that their operations comply with Indian laws and that they act only as a third party marketplace.

 

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Indian shopkeepers are gathering together against these e-commerce giants alleging that they engage in predatory pricing in violation of new rules meant to protect local businesses. At the Delhi protest, Praveen Khandelwal, national secretary of the Confederation of All India Traders, said Amazon and Flipkart are a second version of the East India Company.

 

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Sandeep Shashtri, a political scientist at Jain University in Bangalore said, “For a government, especially a government of the BJP, which has the support of small businessmen, it may not be prudent or politically advisable to totally ignore such demands”.