CIITA appeals for help from other associations to fight off Rashi

With the stalemate going on with the trade dispute on alleged ethical grounds over the Rashi Peripherals (RP) and Confederation of Indian IT Associations (CIITA) yielding no futile results after their last meeting, a fresh series of allegations and counter allegations have come up from both parties whereby, CIITA is now in the mood to take the issue at the national level involving associations across India as well as the vendors.

"We have already communicated about the problem and the stance to all major associations in the west and south and are awaiting their response. Since the problem is not getting sorted out amicably and RP is denying some crucial pointers during the meeting on October 14, we need to take our struggle at the national level", said Navin Gupta, vice president, CIITA.

He further alleged that officials in RP, during the meeting had admitted about the CIITA allegations against Savera Marketing Agency (SMA) and RP citing the obligations and trade agreements RP had with the vendors, but later withdrew from their stance. Besides, he further alleged that in their mail reply (from RP to CIITA), RP has questioned about the legality of CIITA in framing the National Distributor Policy (NDP) and the obligations required thereof.

"Ciita has brought a Trade policy defining do's and don'ts for a ND or RD. Can any Association frame a policy for vendors who are investing huge amount in partners and are stakeholders? Is this policy legal and ethical? We have Indian Constitution and various Laws governing business but nothing is applicable to them? In fact their own members and RDs are flouting norms of this policy. It appears that this policy is framed keeping in view of RP and SMA only", the mail from RP stated.

Further, the mail stated "The Cartel wants RP to follow guidelines as narrated in CIITA's trade policy, which is not acceptable to RP. No trade association can ban any organization. It was therefore essential on our part to bring a clear picture of incidences before you".

Clarifying their stance and reinstating the fact of the shareholding pattern of SMA, CIITA is of the view that RP is a National Distributor and SMA is doing business in all tiers except being a National Distributor. The same person (Gopal Pansari ) is controlling both the business in direct conflict of interest to the channels. Instead of addressing related party transaction issues, breach of confidentiality, violation of corporate governance norms, violating the spirit of the channel business and eco system, RP and SMA are trying to defend their past and current actions by spreading rumours and trying to break the unity of the associations. Members who normally do business with RP and SMA have now of their own will stopped doing transactions with them.

However, retracting from their earlier stance asking members to "must refrain" from dealings with both RP and SMA, CIITA has now asked its member associations about compulsorily advising members to refrain from any business deals with SMA and RP.

"Member Associations must advise their members to voluntarily refrain from carrying on any transactions with RP and SMA due to unfair trade practices", Gupta added.

The ongoing ban over RP has met with little efficacy in the north-eastern markets.

"The ban is effective only in Guwahati which is the stronghold of North-Eastern Computer Traders Association (NECTA). For other parts of Assam like Silchar, Dibrugarh and others, it is not in place at all", a member of NECTA said wishing not to be quoted.

Further, another NECTA member in Nagaland said, "As a member of NECTA I have to support the ban but on personally I am against it and I am continuing dealing with RP".

Similarly, some channel partners in Kolkata also are continuing with the billings from RP despite CIITA's previous stance of "must refrain" and the new stance of "must advise their members to voluntarily refrain".

Further, questions about Gopal Pansari's election as a Compass official several times and the composition of the electorate during Compass polls have been questioned by RP.

"In the Compass election, we found that the cartel had approached 60 to 70 non-IT and non-active members (who are members but not in IT business currently), since it was hard for them to win without their vote. In spite of this, Gopal got 114 (52%) positive votes from members out of 218 total votes. If we remove non-IT members he got support from 72% members", the mail from RP alleged.

Responding to this allegation, CIITA has counter alleged, "These allegations are being made in order to break the unity of the association(s). RP and SMA has gone to the extent of offering money to some members to break away from their existing association and start a new association for which they were willing to fund any amount. This show to what extent RP and SMA can compromise on values in order to cover up the unfair practices they have been indulging all these years".

As the ban over RP from major channel associations in the east are not yielding any solution and a resolution is not likely to come in shortly, the issue is likely to be escalated to the vendors (majorly dealing with RP) and CIITA is deemed to ask for support from associations across India.

On a previous instance in the same backdrop, Rajesh Goenka, VP - Sales and Marketing, RP had stated, "Officials in both CIITA as well as RP are serious enough about resolving this dispute and return to normalcy, but a trade cartel inside it is not letting us to reach a solution".

As allegations and counter-responses to mails and on the social network continue to shake the balance in the eastern channels, the ongoing tussle is about to take a new turn and acquire a much grim guise.