‘Amrita Patel was a mistake’

AHMEDABAD: In spite of the storm that's brewing outside, it's quiet inside the office of the 'Milkman of India', Dr Verghese Kurien. Even at 82, his frail frame and gentle voice fail to hide the determination that has made India the world's largest milk producer. Unfazed by the controversy and allegations that would numb even the strong-hearted, Kurien, who founded and nurtured GCMMF, National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), IRMA, and the brand Amul, for the first time candidly spoke about the differences he had with his successor, Dr Amrita Patel.

Things have come to such a pass that Kurien, who refrained from making any comments on his protégé, now says, "Choosing Amrita Patel as my successor was the biggest mistake of my life. After grooming her for 35 years and thinking that she had imbibed the ethos and true spirit of the cooperative movement, I realised I was wrong."

But what exactly went wrong between the two, who were seen as a winning team? Kurien had the vision and market foresight, Amrita mastered the art of executing his vision into reality. "There is nothing personal about it. No relationship is permanent, things change," he says. He calls it an ideological battle. It was NDDB's attempt to 'corporatise' the dairy sector and 'usurping of farmers' profits', which left him dismayed.

"Instead of empowering cooperatives and the farmers, Amrita empowered the bureaucracy, the government, and tried to corporatise Amul, a brand owned by the farmers. She deviated from the fundamental principles of the cooperative sector," says Kurien.

What does he think about Amrita? "She is a very competent woman. But once she became the chairman and had money in her kitty, she felt the cooperatives needed her guiding hand." Kurien explains, "To say the cooperative movement is a failure which needs guidance, is a big folly. In 1966, we started from scratch, and when I left the NDDB was worth Rs 4,000 crore. During this time, we created 176 Anands across the country with the support of 12 million farmers.

Today, India is the world's largest milk producer. If this is failure, what is success?"  He fears that the farmers will be ruined if this attempt goes on. "GMMFL is the revenue generator as it is the marketing unit. Its profits were passed on to the farmers, but they are now being usurped by the NDDB."

He strongly criticises the logic behind attempts to corporatise the cooperatives on grounds that farmers can't handle them. "This is the same kind of stupid logic that was given by Britishers 60 years ago that Indians cannot handle freedom so we cannot give it to them."