Palika Bazar fights battle of perception after USTR rebuke

NEW DELHI: Last week, Baljit Singh Kohli’s office was inundated with phone calls after Palika Bazar was named in 2020 Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy by Office of the United States Trade Representative ( USTR). “Everyone

in the market was both worried and amused,” he says.

“Palika Bazar, the underground market in Delhi, is reportedly well-known for the trade of counterfeit products,” the review by the US agency said.

Kohli disagrees. “Our market has completely transformed from an electronics market to a garments hub in the past decade.

Most of what we sell now is made in India and some of it could be Chinese like in any other market in the city. So, where is the question of counterfeiting and piracy?”

The market’s listing by USTR was another chapter in the controversial history of India’s first air-conditioned underground market. The brainchild of late

Congress leader Sanjay Gandhi, Palika Bazar was built by the NDMC during the Emergency in a record time of less than a year and opened in 1979. Most shops at that time dealt with handicraft and gifts but by the mid-1980s, many of them began to turn into electronics shops.

The first major blow to the market’s reputation came in the mid-90s when a major police raid on shops selling pirated movies led to several arrests.

Some shopkeepers feel that the dubious reputation of Palika Bazar has adversely affected their business.

But for Ravi Thakur, a tattoo shop owner, the market has turned out to be a perfect place for business.