Amrita-Kurien spat spills onto official publications

While signing off her message, which answered questions raised by Kurien, Patel said: ‘‘After our recent meeting we have agreed to disagree. It is my belief that his continued opposition to the joint venture approach reflects underlying issues that he has chosen not to raise.’’

Kurien hit back, saying: ‘‘It saddens me to witness this colossal blow to the philosophy and practice of cooperation. The unkindest cut of all is that it should come from an organisation (NDDB) that was meant to nurture the cooperative movement in India.’’

Kurien devoted a major part of his speech to joint ventures. The fact that the GCMMF grew by about 17.5 per cent in 2002-03, a year marked by general stagnation in the fast-moving consumer-goods (FMGC) sector, found mention only in the latter part of his speech.

‘‘I feel hard-pressed to find any justification for the trust that the authorities are bestowing upon the new NDDB model. The key risk in the joint venture model is that it will dismantle the existing marketing federations all over the country. If this model fails there will be no organisation or skill left with farmers’ organisations to fall back on for the marketing function,’’ he wrote, without mentioning Patel’s name.

Taking a dig at Patel’s argument that joint ventures will come to the rescue of state federations, he said: ‘‘The experiment with joint ventures is poised to emasculate the healthy cooperative movement and create dependents out of self-sufficient farmers. The weak need to be protected and nurtured, not converted into parasites.’’

Meanwhile, the GCMMF claimed it will make up for the loss of the Dhara brand which accounts for 12 per cent of its turnover.