At a time when Amul is bracing to woo America, the “Taste of India” is leaving a bad taste in Gujarat’s cooperative movement and some of its leaders apprehend it going the way of cooperative banking in the state, thanks to rampant politicisation of White Revolution ushered in by the late Dr Verghese Kurien three decades ago.
Vipul Chaudhary, Chairman of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which markets the Amul brand, is now at the centre of a controversy as 14 of 17 members of GCMMF Board had served a no-confidence notice against him in Octobr 2013, a move stayed by Gujarat High Court a few weeks ago. On Monday, however, a single-judge bench of the High Court allowed the GCMMF board members to go ahead with their no-confidence motion but stayed it until January 11, giving Chaudhary an option to challenge it in a higher court.
Ironically, close to 1,100 village-level milk cooperative societies of the Mehsana District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union (Dudhsagar Dairy), joined as respondents in the PIL filed against him.
“This clearly indicates mounting tension between the cooperative unions in Gujarat. Politicisation of milk cooperatives is detrimental to the interest of farmers and members of the Federation, that too when our milk producers are venturing into the US for manufacturing,” said Ghanshyambhai Amin, Vice-President of National Cooperative Union of India.
Chaudhary came under fire from the GCMMF board members mainly after he was seen sharing dais with political leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Sharad Pawar a few months ago in what was seen as his attempt to step into the shoes of Dr Amrita Patel as Chairman of National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). Soon, there followed allegations of financial mismanagement at the Mehsana dairy which he heads.
In the last decade, due to intense politicisation and financial mismanagement, Gujarat’s cooperative banking sector had faced series of crisis following the multi-crore stock market scam that involved several cooperative banks including Madhavpura Mercantile Cooperative Bank.
“Politicisation of milk cooperatives is adversely affecting the Amul brand and also taking away the attention from key issues of rising prices and production costs,” said Ramsinh Parmar, Chairman of Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union Ltd (Amul Dairy) in Anand.
Founded in 1973, GCMMF is set to begin production of milk products under the brand name Amul for the first time in the United States from February. The Federation, with a turnover of close to Rs 14,000 crore for 2012-13, has daily milk procurement of around 13 million litres. Around 16,914 village milk co-operative societies from the 17 member milk producing unions spread across 24 districts in the state are affiliated to the Federation, thereby involving around 3-4 million milk producers.