Why Swadeshi Jagran Manch loves to hate Amitabh Kant?
And the latest tiff is over the link between e-pharma companies and the government’s contact tracing app Aarogya Setu, which Kant seems to be promoting.
On May 3, Kant had said in a tweet: “AarogyaSetu now brings to you Online Medical Consultations (call and video), Home Lab Test and ePharmacy. AarogyaSetuMitr, the stack powering this new feature, is developed in collaboration and partnership @NITIAayog and @PrinSciAdvGoI.”
It was one of the two tweets posted by the Niti Aayog CEO on the subject that day.
SJM’s national co-convenor Ashwani Mahajan later tweeted in response, tagging Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging Kant was promoting e-pharmacies which Mahajan claimed were illegally functioning in India.
According to Mahajan, the link on the home page of the now popular app meant for Covid-19 contact tracing and to contain the spread of the virus, leads to multiple e-pharmacies.
Mahajan didn’t stop at that, and to make a case for his argument of illegality, he tweeted a Delhi High Court order which was issued on December 18, 2018 that read, “The respondents are injuncted from the online sale of medicine without a licence and the respondents are directed to ensure that the same is prohibited forthwith until further orders.”
The SJM functionary said in his tweet: “Respected @narendramodi ji, Please see CEO @NITIAayog is promoting E pharmacies with #ArogyaSetuApp which are ILLEGALLY functioning in India. It’s unfortunate that this App for fighting #ChineseVirus is made to serve foreign funded E Pharmacies. CC @PiyushGoyal @drharshvardhan.”
But this was not about an RSS affiliate firing a direct salvo at a top bureaucrat who seems to enjoy good credibility with the government. This was one among a series of attacks on the erudite bureaucrat who always found himself at odds with the influential RSS affiliate.
Earlier, in more ways than one, SJM had insinuated that Kant’s words or works seemed to help private companies or endeavours. Back in 2017, the SJM wrote to the Prime Minister alleging that Niti Aayog was meddling in drug pricing by undermining the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Agency (NPPA).
The SJM has been generally supportive of the Aarogya Setu app and defended it against its critics. However, that has not stopped it from targeting Kant on the issue linking the app with e-pharmacies.
“We strongly protest this ill-intentioned recommendation which will increase the prices of essential medicines to further unaffordable levels and is revealing of the NITI Aayog’s apathy towards the welfare of the poor people of the country,” Mahajan had alleged in a letter back then.
However, there has been no direct mention of Kant per say. But he has been the face of the organisation ever since 2016 when the Modi government made him the Chief Executive of the tweaked Planning Commission, after his superannuation as Secretary in the then Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).
Speaking to IANS, Mahajan recounted the letter.
In 2018, Mahajan and Kant came face-to-face over the issue of Lokpal. While Kant had suggested that Lokpal isn’t needed in the country for curbing black money, Mahajan had dismissed the suggestion that simplification of rules instead of a Lokpal alone can solve India’s black money problem, while addressing the issue during a panel discussion in the presence of then Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
Fast forward to 2020, when the insinuations turned into allegations. Mahajan had lashed out at the Niti Aayog CEO in January, accusing him of being sympathetic towards e-commerce giant Amazon and its owner and global CEO Jeff Bezos, who was on a three-day visit to India.
He had targeted Kant, saying, “We are perturbed by your unending love for Amazon.”
This was after Kant had tweeted an article, claiming that Amazon will export $10 billion ‘Make in India’ goods by 2025.
The offensive came at a time when the Competition Commission of India (CCI) had ordered an inquiry into the business practices of e-commerce majors Amazon and Flipkart.
So why does the SJM love to hate Amitabh Kant?
Mahajan explained, “Appointment is the prerogative of the government. But red flagging is our prerogative. We had also red flagged Arvind Panagariya’s role. We at SJM expect all those appointed by the government to work in ‘desh hit’ (interest of the country). We will continue to criticise those who we feel are not working as per the expectations.”
<br>(Anindya Banerjee can be contacted at Anindya.b@ians.in)
–IANS
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