India Strikes Over Retail Reforms

Across India today, shopkeepers, traders, and laborers tried to show what it might be like if they weren’t around.

They closed markets in a nationwide day of protest against the possible introduction of big-box stores like Walmart onto their turf.

The BBC’s Rahul Tandon has been out on the streets of Kolkata.

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Lisa Mullins: I am Lisa Mullins and this is The World. Across India today, shopkeepers, traders, and laborers tried to show what it might be like if they weren’t around. They closed markets in a nationwide day of protest against the possible introduction of big-box stores such as Wal-Mart onto their turf. The BBC’s Rahul Tandon has been out on the streets in Kolkata. What do the protests that you’ve seen there, Rahul, look like?

Rahul Tandon: The protests have been huge in Kolkata. This is one of the world’s biggest cities. It’s a very vibrant place. Today, no taxis on the street, no buses on the street, no auto rickshaws on the streets at all. Schools were shut. Shops were all closed down. That has been a similar picture across some Indian cities. In other parts of India though, like Mumbai and Delhi, things have functioned pretty much as near to normal. In terms of the protestors, there’s lots of political opponents of the government but there are ordinary people like shopkeepers, like laborers who are worried that if the likes of Wal-Mart comes in their businesses could collapse.

Mullins: You spoke to some of the protestors, Rahul, yourself. Let’s hear from one of them. Who is this first person we’ll hear from?

Tandon: This is the leader of the protest in Kolkata, Biman Bose.

Biman Bose: Initially, they will supply [???] cheaper rate and then they will just smash all the small traders. Many people will be jobless.

Mullins: So, he’s saying that eventually the small traders will be put out of business. You know, this is of course the same kind of argument that we hear here in the United States about big-box stores as well. The very fact though that people will be able to buy stuff cheaply, is that not appealing to India’s growing middle class – these shops would give them more of a choice?

Tandon: Absolutely, and I think that’s where India has had a real contradiction at the moment. Whilst you have millions of people who don’t want these stores in, in a country of more than 1.2 billion, there are millions of others who would welcome them with open arms. I’ve been speaking to some shoppers from India’s new cash-rich middle class; this is what they have to say.

[Female shopper]: If they are coming, it’s good. I’m very happy. It’s more clean and washed. We like that.

[Male shopper]: The supermarket…the advantage is that you don’t have to shop like this. You can go a much cleaner, much better way. These are people whose standard of living is increasing. The middle class is becoming upper middle class. Families are becoming rich. So it’s better that this kind of culture comes here and this kind of facilities are available to the people.

[Female shopper]: My income is more than the general public so I will definitely go to that market, not this market because I don’t feel like coming here [laughs].

Mullins: What’s she saying? She would definitely go to a Wal-Mart type store versus some of the local stores?

Tandon: Absolutely, and I think most of the people in the middle class that I’ve spoken to would welcome the likes of Wal-Mart in here with open arms. Let’s not forget here that we’re talking about supermarkets because in many other areas of Indian life you have huge American companies. Talk to any kid in Kolkata – his favorite place to eat is either Subway or KFC at the moment. The days of the ’70s when I used to come to India as a child, when the Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi said to Coca-Cola, “You can’t come in here unless you give me the recipe” (well surprisingly, they said no to her), those days are long gone now. So, I think, in spite of the huge protest today, a lot of Indians really have now a growing affinity with American products, and with the government in Delhi very, very sure that in spite of what’s happening across the country it is not going to change its mind, I think it’s only a question of time before we see the likes of Indian shoppers pushing their trolleys around at Wal-Mart.

Mullins: Thank you very much. Rahul Tandon, reporter for the BBC based in Kolkata, India, thanks a lot.

Tandon: Thank you very much.

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