The moment you saw him what struck you was his short, stout stature and his large, searching eyes. His supreme confidence, easily mistaken for arrogance, was evident as he spoke in his guttural, authoritative voice. Dramatic gestures, fierce body language, wit, biting sarcasm and robust sense of humour could well have made him a huge success in the world of theatre or cinema. But India would have missed the milk revolution, colourfully called the White Revolution!

Of course, one is talking about Verghese Kurien.

As part of a media team that visited Anand in the spring of 1990 or 1991, I was his guest for a couple of days in the milk town in Gujarat that became Kurien’s home for life.

Much has been written about Kurien’s priceless contribution in transforming the poor farmer in Gujarat into a well-to-do entrepreneur of sorts through the milk cooperative movement. Perhaps, it is pertinent to talk about Kurien’s personality that is nothing if not aggressive. There was aggression, controlled aggression about whatever he did.

SCATHING TONGUE

When then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri wanted him to head the National Dairy Development Board in New Delhi, Kurien wasted little time in politely refusing the offer, quipping, “There are no farmers in Delhi, what would I do there?” And he continued his stay in his rustic idyll, Anand.

It was never easy to contradict Kurien and win an argument. A journalist in the media team hesitantly suggested that for all its popularity, Amul chocolate was no match for a particular multinational brand. “That is in bad taste, I must say,” Kurien roared back and asked the questioner to explain his contention. Unable to pinpoint the ‘special’ attributes of the foreign chocolate, the questioner finally admitted, “It’s a question of one’s taste I think.” A triumphant Kurien laughed aloud, crying, “There you are!” No doubt, it was Kurien’s “utterly, butterly” moment.

A brave character, Kurien successfully weathered a stormy campaign by a writer who virtually called his White Revolution a fake during the early 1970s. Kurien was a great mimic and could regale you with performances that brought before you fumbling politicians and pompous bureaucrats. His loquacity was lethal and he spared few.

FIERCE NATIONALIST

Once a western representative of a multinational met Kurien in Anand to discuss some business venture of his firm and vaguely suggested that his company could be leased some land in the town. Kurien virtually showed the visitor the door. As he narrated the incident, Kurien excitedly cried, “What cheek, you want to put up shop in my own courtyard, use my cows, use my own men and produce and sell me your damned chocolate!”

No doubt, Kurien had his faults. But he was a fierce nationalist and had an ambitious vision. At a function held to honour him and other achievers in 2001, Kurien said with passion, “India’s place in the sun would come from the partnership between the wisdom of its rural people and skill of its professionals.”

Kurien was a truly a “Bharat Ratna”, though uncrowned.

(The writer, a former deputy editor with PTI, is a New Delhi-based freelance journalist.)

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