As Paytm’s Business Soars, RSS Wing to ‘Study’ Its Chinese Connect

The RSS wing has been campaigning against Chinese goods and and China’s Alibaba owns 40% of Paytm’s parent firm.

Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), the economic wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has decided to “study” the Chinese connection of Paytm, which has reaped huge benefits from the Narendra Modi government's demonetisation move, The Economic Times (ET) reported .

The company is India’s top digital wallet operator and has seen a major growth in its business as Modi urges people to step towards a cashless economy.

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba pumped in $680 million and acquired 40 percent ownership of Paytm’s parent company One97 Communications last year. SJM, which has been relentlessly campaigning against Chinese goods and investments in India, said it wants to ensure that the “data shared by Indians is safe”.

Now that we are going for cashless transactions, we want to ensure that data shared by Indians is safe. No Indian company should be sharing data with foreign companies and the investment routes should be made very transparent.

Ashwani Mahajan, Co-convener, SJM

With full-page ads in newspapers, endless discounts and cashback options, not just Paytm but all mobile wallets have been cashing in on the situation right from the moment the government announced its decision to ban Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. As people are scrambling to get some cash in hand, they’ve been made to fall back on digital payments, whether they like it or not.

Paytm on 21 November said it has been witnessing over 7 million transactions worth Rs 120 crore a day, helping it cross $5 billion gross merchandise value sales, four months ahead of its target.

Meanwhile, Paytm founder and chief executive Vijay Shekhar Sharma has asserted that his company is "as Indian as Maruti" and prides itself on being a representative of the "India story".

We are as Indian as Maruti is.. we are the ‘India story’ in every sense whatsoever.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma 

Paytm has close to 160 million customers.

The criticism over its ownership, circulated widely through instant messaging apps, sought to tap into the sentiment against Chinese products.

Sharma, however, appeared unfazed by the criticism, saying:

Everybody else has a way to say whatever they want to say. We don’t come to that level and reply.

(With inputs from The Economic Times and PTI)