Brand Amul’s rather slavish advertisement thanking Narendra Modi for “20 years of service to the nation and unwavering support to the dairy cooperative movement” has understandably caused a stir. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, for one, has put out a tweet saying it is “utterly butterly atrocious” that Mr Modi should be given credit for something that was started by Congress leaders like Sardar Patel and Tribhuvandas Patel, and nurtured by Verghese Kurien. Many see the ad as the last straw in the politicization of Amul, a process that started with the ouster of the late Dr Kurien as chairman of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), owner of the Amul brand, in 2006.
Kurien himself was not a Congressman, though his family did have strong connections with the Congress and his uncle John Mathai was the finance minister in Nehru’s cabinet. For the many years that he was at the helm of GCMMF, Kurien managed to run it as a professional organisation, which played a major role in the success of brand Amul. Former GCMMF managing director, BM Vyas says: “Every government took care to shield the Federation from the vagaries of politics. Every prime minister came to Anand, including Atal Behari Vajpayee.”
When did the BJP’s interference in the running of Gujarat’s milk cooperatives start? Vyas says it began with Amit Shah, who was then the home minister of Gujarat. “The RSS and BJP really had no understanding of cooperatives till then. It was only Amit Shah who understood cooperatives, thanks to his association with some of Gujarat’s cooperative banks. He began playing a role in deciding who would become chairman of the district dairy cooperatives,” he says. With their deep reach into the rural areas, agricultural cooperatives are certainly a valuable developmental tool. This is why the Modi government has recently set up a ministry of fisheries, animal husbandry and dairying and a ministry of cooperation.
Reflecting the politics In the state, all the 20 district dairy cooperatives in Gujarat are now controlled by the BJP. Vyas predicts that the BJP will now leverage its Gujarat experience to make inroads into the cooperatives of Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Bihar and Bengal, where the party currently holds no sway.
Good Article..
Nice article
??