Former Gujarat agriculture minister Dileep Sanghani claims evidence in Amul’s records, say issue cropped up during his tenure.
New Delhi: A Gujarat BJP leader has accused Verghese Kurien, considered the father of the milk revolution in India, of handing over some of Amul’s profits to Christian evangelists carrying out religious conversions.
Speaking at a rally in Gujarat’s Amreli Saturday, incidentally held to commemorate Kurien, whose birth anniversary falls Monday, Dileep Sanghani, a BJP leader and former state minister also allegedly said that Kurien was “only a secretary” in Amul and the credit for launching the brand should go Amul’s founder Tribhuvandas Patel.
“Amul was founded by Tribhuvandas Patel, but does the country know about Tribhuvandas Patel? The money that Gujarat’s farmers and cattle rearers collected through their hard work, he (Kurien) donated it for religious conversions in Dangs (South Gujarat),” The Indian Express quoted Sanghani as having said.
Kurien, a Syrian Christian from Kerala, was founder-chairman of the National Dairy Development Board and the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, which markets its dairy products under the Amul brand. He passed away in 2012.
According to media reports, Sanghani, who was in charge of the agriculture, cooperation and animal husbandry portfolios between 2007 and 2012, allegedly claimed that the details of Kurien allegedly diverting funds to missionaries can be found in Amul’s records.
He reportedly further claimed that the issue cropped up when he was the minister but then he “was advised to keep quiet because the Congress could have raked up the issue across the country”.
The chairman of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Limited (GCMMF), Ram Singh Parmar, has refused to comment on the row. “We don’t want to reply to such a bogus statement,” PTI quoted him as having said.
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Run-ins with the BJP
Before his death in 2012, Kurien had had run-ins with the BJP government in Gujarat, in particular against the then chief minister Narendra Modi.
According to reports, it began in 2004, when Kurien spoke out against what he saw as increasingly political control over the powerful dairy cooperative during Modi’s tenure. In return, the then chief minister had said that the politicising had begun under Kurien’s watch and in Congress rule.
The clashes with politicians led to Kurien stepping down as founder-chairman of the Institute of Rural Management.
When Kurien passed away, Modi had tweeted: “My heartfelt tribute on the sad demise of Dr Verghese Kurien. His pioneering work gave the milk revolution, transformed India & touched us all.”
But the then chief minister did not attend the funeral held in Anand, instead, showing up at an event 20 km away in Nadiad.