Rahul Gandhi on rise of monopolists – Rahul Gandhi on monopolists impacting Indian business

Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi alleged that a “new breed of monopolists” were controlling the country’s governing institutions and regulators. The Raebareli MP, in an editorial in The Indian Express, said, due to these “oligarchic groups”, lakhs of businesses have been decimated, making it difficult to generate jobs.

Gandhi said these “match-fixing” monopoly groups have amassed colossal wealth amid rising inequality.

“The original East India Company wound up over 150 years ago, but the raw fear it then generated is back. A new breed of monopolists has taken its place. They have amassed colossal wealth, even as India has become far more unequal and unfair for everybody else,” he said.

The Congress MP’s opinion piece is in line with his attack on the BJP’s “monopoly model” in recent months. Gandhi has accused the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government of running a “monopoly model” that has devastated micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), leading to job losses.

In his editorial, Gandhi asserted that hundreds of India’s “brilliant and dynamic business leaders” were scared of these monopolists. “Bharat Mata is mother to all her children. The monopolisation of her resources and power, this blatant denial of the many for the sake of a chosen few, has wounded her,” he said.

The Gandhi family scion said competing with these monopolists was akin to “fighting the machinery of the Indian state”.

“Their core competence is not products, consumers or ideas, it is their ability to control India’s governing institutions and regulators — and, in surveillance,” he said.

“Unlike you, these groups decide what Indians read and watch, they influence how Indians think and what they speak. Today, market forces do not determine success, power relations do,” Gandhi highlighted.

However, Gandhi pointed out that there was a “tiny sample” of homegrown companies that have innovated and chosen to play by the rules and gave examples like Mahindra, Titan, Lenskart, Manyavar, Zomato etc.

“The government cannot be allowed to support one business at the expense of all others, much less support benami equations in the business system,” he said.

He also said that these “big monopolists” were not “evil individuals”, but the outcome of the deficiencies of our societal and political environment.