Political interference hits milk co-op movement
BY RK
MISRA
Any
jackass can kick down a barn but it takes a good carpenter to build one.
It took
V.Kurien, the father of the milk revolution, a lifetime to ensure that India
becomes the largest milk producer in the world but only a few months for then chief minister Narendra Modi to
inject the poison of politics into the
body mechanism of milk cooperatives in Gujarat. Modi is now the prime minister
and this ‘Gujarat’ model is set to be
replicated countrywide to ensure BJP control of milk cooperatives for
enhanced consolidation of political
power.
It was Modi
who conspired to have Kurien ejected
from both the Institute of Rural
Management, Anand (IRMA) and Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF)
in 2006.The two never saw eye to eye. Kurien guarded his flock of milk producers with steely resolve while Modi
possessed an insatiable appetite for total control. The milk cooperatives of
Gujarat with a captive vote bank of approx ten million and fat finances was too juicy a preposition
to let go. Kurien would not relent and paid the price for it. Thereafter there was no
stopping Modi, who took control of the
bulk of the milk cooperative in Gujarat and his chosen partymen took over as
chairmen of the district milk dairies of the state. So deep-rooted was Modi’s
animosity towards Kurien that when he passed away September 9,2012, Modi though less
than 25 kms away from Anand, did not feel it fit to go down and pay his last respects.
Sow the
wind and you end up reaping the whirlwind. Lesser minions in the Gujarat BJP are
waking up to the potential of massive financial leverages of the cooperative
milk movement and the potential of captive vote banks at their command. Modi has
too much on his plate and little time for the white droplets spilling over the
edges of the milk glass.An internecine
warfare rages within, as people try to outdo each other to curry favour with
the Prime Minister .To cite an
example of sweeping sycophancy, the
Banaskantha district cooperative dairy chairman announced setting up of a new milk processing plant in
Varanasi within one hour of Modi being elected from the holy city! Need-demand
survey, my foot!
Anand town
and Gujarat state have been
at the vanguard of the milk revolution in making India the largest milk producing country since
1997(2012-13 milk production 132 million tonnes). Energised cooperative dairy set ups in various states of the
country stand as thriving memorials to Kurien. The marketing body of milk
cooperative in Gujarat he set up (Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing
Federation_GCMMF) popularly known through brands like AMUL and SAGAR is today
India’s third largest food brand with an annual turnover of Rs 18,150 crores or
US$ 3 billion.Approximately 13.10 million litres of milk is collected daily from
17,025 village milk cooperative societies owing allegiance to 17 member unions
covering 31 districts and 3.23 million milk producer members. The numbers not
only add upto an imposing economic edifice but also present a salivating
political preposition.
This
is the backdrop in which an internecine
political battle rages within the BJP
for control of milk cooperatives.
The
trouble for Vipul Chaudhary, chairman of
Dudhsagar dairy of Mehsana district in north Gujarat and by virtue of it,
chairman of GCMMF in August 2012, boiled over last year. A politician of BJP
stock, he was served a no confidence notice in October 2013 by 14 of the 17
members of the GCMMF board, alleging financial irregularities and irresponsible
decision making in the Mehsana dairy. Chaudhary moved the High Court with the
plea that there is no provision in the Gujarat Cooperative Societies Act, 1961
and in by-laws of the GCMMF for such a motion. A single judge bench stayed the
meeting but a division bench vacated it. While the legal lob-and-volley
continued, Chaudhary was forced out of the GCMMF chairmanship, though he continues to head the Mehsana milk
set up.
Unseating
Chaudhary from the GCMMF chairmanship was not the end of his woes. The donation
of cattlefeed worth Rs 22 crores for the scarcity hit cattle of Maharashtra was
turned into an issue. A PIL filed soon after was made the basis of an enquiry
ordered at the behest of the State Government by the Registrar of cooperatives. It was
followed by an FIR , filed against the chairman and board of
directors of the Dudsagar Dairy . As Chaudhary’s support was crucial in the
2014 Lok Sabha elections, the sword of domocles was kept hanging over his head.
Instead , MD N.J.Bakshi and the CGM (Finance)
R.M.Modi, upright officials, were arrested at the dead of night, handcuffed and
brought to the dairy.
The
entire police ploy,was to terrorise and make a spectacle of the officers to
keep Chaudhary in check. Chaudhary’s problems multiplied after his presence was
noted at a Rahul Gandhi interaction in
Ahmedabad last year and BJP leaders suspected him of cosying up to UPA agriculture minister Sharad Pawar.
Chaudhary
was a party legislator in the first BJP government in Gujarat headed by
Keshubhai Patel but went along with Shankersinh Vaghela when he rebelled in
1995, also becoming a minister in his cabinet. Chaudhary subsequently did a
‘sastang-dandvat’ at a public function, touching the feet of Modi but the knives are still out for him.
Chaudhary
was replaced August 1,2014 as chairman of GCMMF by Jetha Patel who
was unanimously elected by all 17
board members. The influence of the BJP was visible when two state- level
leaders handed out a mandate on behalf
of Chief Minister Anandiben Patel in favour of Patel.
The
immediate implication is that the decision to unseat Chaudhary initiated last
year also had the approval of then chief
minister Modi.
Kurien
must have turned in his grave at such a brazen show of political interference
in the milk cooperative movement.
A key
man involved in the milk movement had the last word when he said “You build on
cost and you borrow on value. Kurien spent his life building on cost, Modi has
just borrowed on value. He should do well to remember. The greatest monarch on
the proudest throne is obliged to sit upon his own bottom and the heat sears
without discrimination”.
Kurian was not a Gujarati but what he did on the soil of Gujarat was unprecedented but how the hell you people expect BJP/RSS lads to be dead honest. With reverence and love to Mother India they think their birth right to milch her as much as possible- black money or white money every thing is acceptable to them.
ReplyDelete