Interesting article on multinational backlash in India:
(COMTEX) B: Hindu hardliners aim to drive multi-nationals out of Indi
B: Hindu hardliners aim to drive multi-nationals out of India
by Abhik Kumar Chanda
NEW DELHI, July 29 (AFP) - A right-wing group with links to India's
ruling Hindu nationalist party Wednesday said it would launch a
nationwide campaign to "liberate" the country from multi-nationals.
The Rashtriya Jagran Manch (National Awakening Forum) said the
seven-day programme, ending on the 51st anniversary of the end of
British rule on August 15, would be the start of a prolonged battle
against foreign firms.
Manch convenor Murlidhar Rao told AFP the underlying theme of the
campaign, called the MNCs Quit India programme, was based on the
concept of "swadeshi" or economic self-reliance espoused by
independence hero Mahatma Gandhi.
"MNCs are monopolising all our production systems and are a symbol of
the colonial period," Rao told AFP. "We want to put a stop to this.
"Our purpose is not to throw them out by force as such but to force the
government to develop Indian industry so that they just have to leave,"
he said.
"We want to make people aware of the perils of neo-colonialism."
The Manch said the campaign would include street protests,
demonstrations outside multi-national offices and production units and
street plays.
But he said it would exclude violence as it was severely condemned by
Mahatma Gandhi.
Rao said the worst offenders were US firms PepsiCo Inc., Coca Cola and
MacDonalds, accusing the firms of having brought "rubbish into the
country".
But he denied his organisation was responsible for a spate of attacks
on Coke and Pepsi trucks and parlours of US ice cream giant Baskin
Robbins.
"Our organisation is interested in generating awareness and for this we
are using these companies as symbols.
"In times of extraordinary events, people get surcharged. And if they
burn a truck you cannot form a generalised opinion that (we) preach
violence."
The Manch is a front for a hardline Hindu group closely linked to Prime
Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Hindu nationalist party. The forum was
set up in 1991, the year India opened its markets after four decades of
protection.
Rao said 1991 -- which brought in global brands such as Mercedes Benz,
Benetton, Pierre Cardin, Rayban and Pizza Hut -- was "the worst thing
to have happened to India."
He said the anti-MNC programme would be intensified during a two-week
campaign ending on October 2, Mahatma Gandhi's birthday, and target
"millions of people".
"We will move to villages and towns, hold protests everywhere and make
the people see the light. Once they realise that foreign companies are
exploiting us -- they are not creating enough jobs, they are
repatriating profits and encouraging Western-style consumerism -- they
will stop buying."
The Manch's taboo list covers goods ranging from soaps to consumer
items and includes brands such as Pears soap, Colgate toothpaste,
Cadbury and Nestle chocolates and products made by Philips, Sony,
Revlon and Whirlpool.
Vajpayee has been critical of the protests, saying: "Some people are
breaking Coca Cola bottles. What do you achieve by breaking bottles?
Only another kind of liquid flows from such a programme -- blood."
But Jay Dubashi, a key economic adviser in Vajpayee's party, said he
partially backed the campaign.
"I totally agree that we need to draw a line between computer chips and
potato chips. We need to stress that foreign capital and technology is
welcome in crucial sectors like infrastructure but not in capital
goods.
"However, a total reversal is not feasible. Globalisation is here and
seems here to stay."
ach/tl/pch
*** end of story ***
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