President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday quoted ‘Father of White Revolution’ Dr Verghese Kurien to say that Amul owed much of its success to the non-interference of central and state governments in its affairs. On a three-day visit to Gujarat, Mukherjee was speaking at the inauguration of a cattle feed plant of the Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union, or Amul Dairy. Addressing over 20,000 milk farmers associated with the dairy cooperative in Kheda, the President lauded the contributions of Tribhuvandas Patel, founder of the milk cooperative movement, and Kurien. “Dr Kurien stated that ‘success of Amul can also be attributed to the fact that successive governments at the state and national level have supported Amul by not succumbing to the temptation of interfering in the affairs of the cooperative’. In fact, I clearly remember a quote from Dr Kurien that said, ‘While we have been largely left alone to manage our business, various governments have also played an extremely supportive role. However, for the cooperative sector to flourish in the entire country, the Union and state governments can further help by providing a level-playing field in terms of macro-economic policies’.”
