Shekhar Gupta: Return of the Bharatiya 'Baniya' Party

BJP under Modi-Shah is returning to its trader mindset with a vengeance, underlining that strong, full majority governments can also be more risk-averse

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has been quick to clarify his remark on Amazon founder Jeff Bezos not doing India a favour by investing here. He now says all investment is welcome as long as it complies with India’s regulations. You can’t argue with that.

Although, if read with the fact that the monopoly watchdog Competition Commission of India had hauled up Amazon earlier this week for “unfair” trade practices, a move hailed breathlessly by Swadeshi Jagaran Manch and trader/retailers’ associations, you wouldn’t make such a benign interpretation. It won’t be some diabolical conspiracy either. It’s only pure politics. It