Letter to BS: Goyal's jibe at Amazon aims to save BJP's trader vote bank

Union minister Piyush Goyal seems to have jumped the gun in his laconic observations on the recent Amazon investment proposal. We may recall that Amazon had promised to create more than 25,000 jobs at a new campus in Long Island City, New York, in return for nearly $3 billion in government incentives. It was a cocky and raw business approach in a nation that is a votary of pure capitalism. Yet, it failed in this venture mostly due to the growing influence of the progressive Left in New York. In its current home in Seattle, Amazon is being criticised on rising house prices and growing inequality that has damaged the city. Now a minister in our own government has chosen to cast a barb on its predatory pricing policies. This might well be due to the party’s concerns about saving its trader vote bank. But the remarks, credible as they may be, could have come from a party functionary rather than a minister for commerce and trade. The BJP is known to put its electoral concerns ahead of economy and this is no different.

R Narayanan, Navi Mumbai

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