A Threat to Middlemen

Certainly, it is the basic nature of the system that it creates a strong chain of thoughts in favour of its upcoming courses. In the era of globalisation—‘the terrible concept for the developing countries’—the system is mainly controlled by the market. Undoubtedly the market has enormous potential but the recent emerging trend must be seen as a threat to the whole market system. It is a matter of common knowledge that the commodities reach the consumer via a proper channel. The channel starts from the producers and terminates at the consumers passing through wholesalers and retailers. Nonetheless it is an ordinary common path of the market to provide the commodities to the end point, of course, consumers. In fact the path is not spontaneous—it has been created by the controller of the market as a part of the business strategy for his/her own interest. In spite of this the contribution of wholesalers and retailers to the consumers cannot be denied.

But the recent policy seems to be a threat to the middlemen (wholesalers and retailers). Nowadays the controllers of the market system have brought a new strategy that is more vigorous and pseudo-consumer friendly. The so-called logic that is given by them in favour of their policy is that “our objectives are to reach to the consumers without any intervention, that is, there is no need of middlemen”. Certainly the new approach will bring more detrimental consequences. As per the new market strategies, the big elite class producers and MNCs are opening retail chain stores for selling essential commodities across the country to curb their dependency on the wholesalers and retailers. But they are projecting that they are your (consumers’) sympathisers and they will provide the commodities at cheaper price. Surprisingly, the business class has, in fact, been attempting to combine the role of middlemen with wholesalers and retailers. Actually, their policy is nothing but a business that is bound to their interest only.

Essentially, when the market runs through a proper channel the dependency of producers on the middlemen is inevitable and in this situation not a class but a group of class manipulates the markets. And, consequently the chances of big business monopolising the market are less as the space is generally available for bargaining at the time of buying commodities. Actually the opening of retail chains of the essential goods by the big producer business elite is nothing but a step for capturing the whole market system and for acquiring the monopoly that could not be possible earlier.

IT is more astonishing that the government has permitted the business elite class to open the retail chains of day-to-day goods across the country. The logic given by the government in favour of granting the permission is by propagating that the view “we are the sole well-wisher of the people and we have adopted the policy of ‘direct approach from producer to consumer’”. For a short while one may tend to believe this propaganda but very shortly it would become ridiculous when the government includes contractors as middlemen in various services particularly in security and sanitary. Actually the contract services act as the safety valve to the government. Since individuals, involved in the services, do not act on the behalf of government employees, there is no accountability towards them. The basic nature of the contract services is to provide cheap labour without burden. Apparently there is no great difference between the market and government. Both think and act for themselves. The market interest lies in its profit and the government tries to retain its authority anyhow. Here it is essential to point out that the market of essential commodities (only edible items) in India in terms of rupees is approximately 700,000 crores. So the business class will never want that that huge market goes out of their hands.

The selling of salt at Rs 8 per kg with its value equivalent to hardly one rupee by the big business elite producers is nothing but a part of the same business exercise. It is a threat to the entire market channel that is currently running. Really, if the system, that is, the government is committed to do something for the welfare of the people, it should adopt the Kerala model where the State Government has opened a chain of retail shops across the State on cooperative basis. In a nutshell, the new market strategy has chosen a step that is going towards centralisation of the market and money power.