Delhi blasts likely to impact business proceedings

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Namrata Kath Hazarika | 16 Sep, 2008
The terror attacks that hit Delhi on Saturday evening, have somehow had an immense impact in the minds of exporters in Delhi.

Connaught Place has always been a shopping hub for visitors coming from various foreign destinations. Much to say, Janpath that extends from all the way to the south end road to the Connaught Place, where two blasts took place in quick succession entice huge number of foreign buyers since years. But unfortunately, the situation in this part of the capital seems to be very different after the blasts. Fear of losing potential buyers has left vendors a bit worried.

Gulshan Rai who runs a shop in Janpath in the vicinity of Saturday's two blasts, said, "I was extremely aghast when I heard commotion as people ran for cover. It was a dreadful situation in CP.

"Business has slowed down undoubtedly. Today when you visit the place you will not be able to see the usual hustle-bustle that the area usually witnesses. Customers whosoever used to come during the peak business hours have vanished somewhere," he said.

Adding to that he said, "Business was already very less at Janpath and the blasts has worsened things even more. Life has changed in Janpath. Connaught Place has always been the best shopping destination for even foreign buyers, but even the foreigners are too scared now to shop in this locality."

"Even though some customers are coming they are pretty scared. We are just having huge losses currently due to the blasts."

"The blast have created havoc in Janpath. We never expected that terrorists would attack this posh locality, but now I have realized that there is no security measures given to the Delhiites. No place in Delhi is safe."

"Particularly, the government is doing nothing. Just see, after a couple of days things will be back to normal and the government will be busy in something else. The government had information that the blasts will occur, but still they were caught unawares. They did nothing to prevent them. This is another case of intelligence failure. The authorities learned nothing from the 2005 blasts," he told SME Times in great anguish.

"Many buyers come to India especially to Delhi for handicraft and handloom items, and Janpath is their favorite destination. They come here to give direct orders, but the blasts have created panic. All the customers and buyers have drifted to somewhere else. The frequency of customers coming to the Janpath market and Connaught Place have decreased," says Raju Yadav who deals in Indian handicraft items in Janpath.

Showing disappointment he further said, "I have another shop at Karol Bagh too. I cannot even increase revenue from there as Karol Bagh has been also affected by Saturday's blasts. On Saturday evening after the blast took place, my shop has been sealed for investigation."

"Blast will impact business, I would rather say it have already impacted my business. Mainly our export business have been impacted immensely. Some days back I used to get at least few calls from foreign buyers, but today I am hardly getting any," Yadav said.

Being a little bit optimistic Parvinder Singh a whole seller and exporter of ladies outfits said, "The incident will be there in our minds for few days, but it will be forgotten with the passage of time. In the year 2005 when 29/10 blasts took place in the national capital killing many, we were astonished about how come there was no safety in Delhi too! But we have to accept the fact and learn to support our own-selves. However we need to learn. Our security agencies should learn from these incidents and ensure that they don't occur again."

"At a time when the industry is going through a tough phase, we can't keep on mourning for ever. If there is loss in business, we need to face it boldly. What else can we as common citizens do? As the incidents of 2005 Delhi blasts faded away, similarly these incidents of 2008 will fade and bring normalcy to our daily lives as time passes by. The blasts can't keep people to stay indoors for a long period of time."

He further opined "The blasts should have little impact on people, on investment and other economic activities. Life has to move on as usual and no man can cage himself in his house. People in India should be brave to fight terror and show the terrorists that they are not scared."

"Let the government do their duties and let us do ours without creating some negative fallout and prove ourselves to be a proud Indians," he added.