New Delhi: The original East India Company wound up over 150 years ago but the raw fear it then generated is back with a new breed of monopolists having taken its place, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said on Wednesday.
He, however, asserted that a "new deal for progressive Indian business is an idea whose time has come".
Opinion piece
In an opinion piece in The Indian Express, Gandhi said India was silenced by the East India Company and it was silenced not by its business prowess, but by its chokehold.
The Company choked India by partnering with, bribing, and threatening more pliant maharajas and nawabs, he pointed out.
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"It controlled our banking, bureaucratic, and information networks. We didn't lose our freedom to another nation; we lost it to a monopolistic corporation that ran a coercive apparatus," he said.
New breed of monopolists
A new breed of monopolists has taken its place, amassing colossal wealth, even as India has become far more unequal and unfair for everybody else, Gandhi said.
"Our institutions no longer belong to our people, they do the bidding of monopolists. Lakhs of businesses have been decimated and India is unable to generate jobs for her youth," the former Congress president said.
Sharing the article on X, Gandhi said, "Choose your India: Play-Fair or Monopoly? Jobs or Oligarchies? Competence or Connections? Innovation or Intimidation? Wealth for many or the few?"
"I write on why a New Deal for Business isn't just an option. It is India's future," he said, sharing his opinion piece.
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'Bharat Mata' is mother
Asserting that 'Bharat Mata' is mother to all her children, Gandhi in his article said the monopolisation of her resources and power, this blatant denial of the many for the sake of a chosen few, has wounded her.
"I know that hundreds of India's brilliant and dynamic business leaders are scared of the monopolists. Are you one of them? Scared to talk on the phone? Scared of the monopolists colluding with the state to enter your sector and crush you? Scared of I-T, CBI or ED raids forcing you to sell your business to them? Scared of them starving you of capital when you need it the most? Scared of them changing the rules of the game midway to ambush you?" he said.
(...to be updated)
