Update: Read the recent attack on
Mr. Shamsudeen in Calicut Monavie Meeting. Also
Mr. Abhilash Thomas has expressed his shock on this matter.
Mr. Abhilash Thomas was also able to convince some of his RMP members like Prem Kumar, IN Chandrashekhar, Sreejith Nair, Aneesh Varghese etc also to Monavie Business. This was published in RMP Infotec Website. The move of Abhilash Thomas, Monavie cannot to be said as a right or wrong move only the time will tell.
Abhilash Thomas, Crown Diamond of RMP who later got terminated from RMP writes to All,
Dear Sir,
I would firstly like to convey my sincere thanks to you for being with me for the past several years, the love and affection you have shown to me has always been my greatest treasure. I would like to take this opportunity to clarify on the reason behind the recent happenings, but I do not want to make this a topic of discussion on a social network media because even today or any day I would not like to defame RMP. Though there was a difference of opinion with the management about the quality of products, offices & other infrastructures, Implementation of "Family Mart" professionalism etc, I was always open to any form of discussion or dialogue and had never gone to the level of breaking the relationship, but everything changed from last year onwards.
On the 28th of July 2010 the high court of Andhra Pradesh passed a judgment stating that Network Marketing is illegal and it falls under the purview of the “prize chitt & money circulation banning Act of 1978”. It was really a shocking information for me, who, un till then strongly believed in the 100% legitimacy of this business. I then recollected coming across a recommendation made in favor of the MLM industry in the parliament in December 2002 by Mr. Sreenivasa Prasad who was the union minister for consumer affairs at that time. I then inquired through my sources about those recommendations and as per the information I got, those recommendations were withdrawn or not made applicable by law. Hence our people continually got arrested there with the charges of CRPC-420 and money circulation banning Act. When I approached the company they said they would go to the Supreme court of India like Amway and get a relief, but till today nothing has happened. One of our directors along with a crown diamond met the AP -DGP and, he said "don't do business in Andhra Pradesh, if any complaint is there I will continue to arrest your people"
February 2011 a group of women came to our BOP hall with media in Bangalore and they took over the stage. It has become a big controversial matter and media literally killed our business. The sales had fallen from 5000 weekly to 500 weekly within four weeks (Karnataka was the number one state for RMP in terms of weekly sales). Their contention was our products were not worth the price it was sold at. When we deny this, the police officers use to call electricians and ask them to examine it, the electricians use to report that the products examined was worth only approximately Rs.450/- to 700/- as you are well aware most our business comes from the sale of energy saver, solar lamps, induction cooker etc. We were then asked by the police to buy it back at least for 75% price which we possibly could not do. So they immediately charge CRPC-420 (non bail able for 14 days). The leaders feel that even if they were to rebuild the business back what would be the guaranty that the same things would not be repeated again.
12th June of this year Kerala police sealed all offices of RMP in Kerala and subsequently all other MLM companies’ offices. They informed all hotel owners not to give their convention halls or banquet halls to MLM people, informed all the banks not to give DDs in the name of MLM companies, warned all software companies to not to develop or maintain MLM websites and instructed the internet cafes not to allow browsing of MLM websites. All leaders vanished from their houses and were living under fear. (More than 30 cases got registered in the names of RMP distributors including me. None of these cases have legally been solved till today even though all the petitioners have withdrawn their complaint. The company management said that they will quash it through hon. high court. till now they have not approach the HC for that. Later Govt. of Kerala appointed a high power committee headed by the hon. Chief Secretary other members were DGP, four additional chief secretaries who are heading Law, Home and Commerce & industries ministries. They did a detailed study about this sector and have filed the report to the government. It came out as government order on 27th of August.
All other genuine companies restarted their operation in Kerala except RMP. When contacted they were not giving a proper answer and kept on beating around the bush. I requested a lot to call for a Kerala crown diamond meeting but it did not happen. Finally I decided to go and meet all the high power committee members myself. They clarified my doubts and with a great shock I have come to understand why the company behaved in a very vague manner. As per the 5th point of the guidelines “INDUCEMENT” RMP has been classified under money chain and is not allowed.
I said "MY business is not money chain, only product sale" additional chief secretary replied "justify it"
"I am selling a product to A, and then to B, company pays me Rs.1000" chief secretary replied "Why company is not immediately giving Rs.500 for your first sale?
To which I couldn't give an answer. He told me ''company is INDUCING you to recruit B/more & more people, hence it will fall under money chain''
He also clarified pyramid '' There was a pyramid scheme in Kerala years back. You pay Rs.100 you will be qualified to get a saree. The moment you make three more people invest 100 each you will get the saree in your hand. In the very same way they had to duplicate the process and get the people under them to do the same. Finally in bottom layer many people lost their money. The same way if you cover up your money chain with a product in its tip(under value product) still it will become a pyramid"
Then I asked for a clarification on 30 days money back guaranty also. My contention was if you buy a product from a shop,and you don't like it the shop owner will not buy back. He then replied ''shop is an establishment; at least people can go and throw a stone there. so one extra protective device must be there in your case, maximum I can reduce the date but i cannot remove this clause"
Last month end i have come to know from a reliable source that central government forwarded this guidelines to all state governments. I have given an application to Union ministry of consumer affairs through RTI for which I am waiting for the outcome.
You are requested to personally cross check with Kerala offices whether they are accepting DDs there or not, which they cannot (RMP's prayer got rejected by Kerala high court stating "NO MERIT") By re opening offices and putting advertisements in news papers, they are simply eye washing the people. Once law is implemented all over India, they will simply pass the blame on the government and come out. Since it is a zero asset company they don't have anything to loose. You can also cross check the suggestions we gave as the last hope to put things right, as attached below.
Name, fame, and profit everything is important but these are not a justification for knowingly doing illegitimate business. ICDSI has also rejected RMP's application for membership. Please go through their 8 point legality check. http://www.icdsi.org/about-us/8-point-legality-test.html you will come to know the reason why it happened. On the other side foreign multi national MLM companies are entering India by fulfilling all legal requirements. How can we compete with a brand new Ferrari with an old Maruti-800 mindset?. WHERE IS THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL? In this situation you please tell me what I have to do apart from what I did? At least I have a personal responsibility to park my people in a proper place.
Most sincerely
Abhilash Thomas
Update: Read the recent attack on
Mr. Shamsudeen in Calicut Monavie Meeting. Also
Mr. Abhilash Thomas has expressed his shock on this matter.
