CIITA interdicts Rashi across east India

In the expected move of Confederation of Indian IT Associations (CIITA) regarding its stand over the fracas on Rashi Peripherals (RP) and Savera Marketing Agency (SMA), the confederation has appealed to each of its individual association members of "refraining" from any business dealings with RP and SMA as the ongoing conflict is deemed to enter the next stage of clash of inerest.

In the last meeting of CIITA held in Kolkata in the premises of the Compass office, Presidents and Secretaries of 8 member associations attended the meet whereby CIITA decided to appeal to the individual member associations to desist billings with both SMA as well as RP and has issued circulars to its members over the decision.

"CIITA has appealed to its members to avoid business deals with RP and SMA. We have not resorted to any boycotts or bans as these are not legally justified and the stance of CIITA has to be made legally acceptable to all associations", said Rajiv Poddar, secretary, CIITA.

Although the discussion centred around all companies neglecting or violating the National Distributor Policy (NDP) which was recently passed by CIITA, the focus remained with RP and SMA.

"For a long time dealers in Assam has been fighting against unethical trading issues allegedly committed by RP and SMA. The ongoing ban from Assam channel partners has resulted in a stalemate and now, we need to resolve this dispute as it is affecting all tiers across channels and also need to address the issue over data leakage from RP", said Naveen Gupta, vice president, CIITA.

"In the meeting, it was unanimously decided from participating associations to issue an appeal to the members of local associations to refrain from any billings with SMA and RP. With this decision in place, this week onwards, there hasn't been any billing across the east from RP or SMA", Gupta added.

With the billings of both RP and SMA being brought to an abrupt end this week across eastern India, Gupta is hoping RP to revert back to CIITA with clarity and their stance over the ongoing dispute soon. However, CIITA has not decided or predicted over the next course of action.

"We can only say our next move or the possible end over this conflict once RP reaches us to discuss about the impasse", Gupta added.

Also, SMA refused to comment over the ongoing tussle across the east or clarify their stance citing it was not a party in the CIITA meeting or wasn't invited.

However, RP has claimed that it did not receive any official communication from either CIITA or any of its member associations about the "appeal".

"We haven't received any communiqué from CIITA over their decision and as such I cannot comment over this. So far, with the problem in Assam, we have done our best to address the issue with the channel partners there and arrive at a consensus; however, I think our actions were not upto the expectations of the channel partners in Assam; the result being that the issue still remains unresolved", said Rajesh Goenka, vp - sales and marketing, RP.

Further, if the "appeal" from CIITA is fully adhered to from all channel partners across the east, RP is poised to lose atleast 10% of its annual business.

With this radical move in place from CIITA across the east, a second meeting over the same issue with RP and SMA is likely to take place on October 14.