Nayanar Warns Traders Of Action

Kerala Chief Minister E K Nayanar has warned traders in the state against turning their five-month-old stand-off with Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) into a law-and-order problem and said the government will not remain a mute witness.

The government will not remain a mute witness if the traders took law into their hands by forcibly preventing any shopowner from selling the companys products, he said in his weekly column in the Communist Party of India (Marxist) daily Deshabimani. The government is not against the traders agitating to secure higher sales commission from any multinational. But, it is difficult to understand how such an agitation could be turned against the government, Nayanar said referring to the boycott of HLL products by shopowners under the Kerala Vyapari Vyavasayi Ekopana Samiti (KVVES), an apex traders association. Stating that the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) would stand by traders in their struggle against multinationals if it was based on ideology or for upholding the interests of the country, the Chief Minister said the samitis anti-HLL movement was not based on such ideology or policies.

Defending the sale of HLL products in state-owned Maveli and co-operative Neeti stores, Nayanar said these stores had been selling these articles at subsidised prices well before the traders launched their boycott. The samiti had accused the government of promoting the HLL by selling its products in the state-owned stores in a bid to scuttle their ideological and patriotic agitation.

Recalling the steps that were taken to settle the dispute through negotiations, he said that during talks held by him, HLL had offered to raise the commission for a three-month period. The company had expressed its willingness for reaching a permanent settlement within the next three months after examining the issues.

The conciliation efforts failed due to adamant attitude of some leaders of the samiti, Nayanar said.

The samiti, which observed a one-day statewide closure of shops on September 27, had been maintaining that their agitation was not merely for higher retailers commission and it was against a multinational company which had been cornering huge profits by controlling the domestic market.