Utterly, Bitterly Scandalous

If chairman of KDCMPUL Ramesh Patel has threatened to part ways with the Federation, the latter is pinning its hopes on the intervention of Dr V. Kurien to strike a compromise, and, if that does not happen, for a life beyond Amul. Dr Kurien calls it a family dispute and expects Patel to walk up to him to sort it out.

But 66-year-old Patel is too caught up in a sex scandal to be able to find time to meet the patriarch who will soon turn 81. A videotape, allegedly showing Patel’s sexual escapades in a Delhi hotel, and leaflets about his alleged overnight stay with a 25-year-old girl in the guest house of another dairy in Gujarat are doing the rounds of Anand, which calls itself the Milk Capital of India.

What have Patel’s sexual adventures to do with the Amul brand? A lot, for this will decide the fate of the brand. Patel is unfazed by the allegations. ‘‘I am 66, diabetic for the last 40 years and take pills thrice a day — all of which has made me impotent,’’ he says, making no bones of the fact that he has two wives. ‘‘Can I still be active in bed. And, hypothetically, even if I was in a Delhi hotel with a girl, why tape it if you didn’t intend to blackmail me,’’ he adds.

He alleges the hand of Federation officials and some political rivals behind the sleaze campaign because ‘‘I am the first chairman to question them on why they were taking certain decisions without consulting me or Amul. Kurien ran the empire like his fiefdom.’’ Stating that the dispute over the brand is old, he says the ‘‘doctored tape’’ surfaced later to browbeat him into silence. But the Federation claims that Patel raked up the dispute to wriggle out of the sex tapes.

‘‘What he does in bed or in private is not our concern, as long as he is not charging it to Amul,’’ says vice-chairman Shivabhai Parmar. Claiming the support of the farmers in Anand and Kaira districts, both Patel and Parmar say they won’t mind parting ways with the Federation. At its annual general meeting, the KDCMPUL even passed a resolution, illegally though, seeking the removal of GCMMF managing director B.M. Vyas whom they accuse of high-handedness.

The bone of contention is a marketing agreement signed between Amul and GCMMF on June 15 this year. While dairies in Gujarat pay a symbolic royalty of one rupee for using the Amul trademark, the Federation allows dairies outside the state to use the trademark too, passing on a part of the royalty to Amul.

Patel accuses the Federation of keeping him in the dark about those who use the trademark outside Gujarat and the royalty they pay. Stating that the agreement binds the Federation to seek Amul’s permission before permitting outsiders to use the trademark, KDCMPUL, with a membership of about 950 village societies, is demanding a fresh agreement.

But L.S. Sharda, advisor to the Federation, counters: ‘‘Why did they collect royalty if they were against it and why did they never raise the dispute in black and white.’’ Disputing Patel’s claim that the Amul brand is worth Rs 4,500 crores, Federation officials claim there are bigger dairies in Gujarat, ‘‘none of which have any problems with us’’ and Amul contributes less than 15 per cent of its milk. ‘‘The royalty dispute is an afterthought,’’ says Sharda, questioning why Patel, who is on the board, did not take up the issue at the board meeting held on July 2.

Patel admits that without the infrastructure of GCMMF, the apex body of milk cooperatives in Gujarat which calls itself the largest food marketing organisation in India, Amul will have difficulty in marketing its products for the first few months. A major chunk of the Federation’s ad expenditure is devoted to Amul.

But Parmar quickly adds: ‘‘We used to market our products before GCMMF came into being, we will sell milk in retail.’’ He recollects what Dr Kurien told him once: ‘‘Kurien Amul se hai, Federation Amul se hai,’’ adding, ‘‘Kurien is like God to us. Only, he is being misinformed by Federation officials.’’ So when Dr Kurien asked Patel to resign, the latter complied but the KDCMPUL AGM rejected his resignation, reposing faith in his leadership for the fifth consecutive year. Federation officials allege Patel wields enough influence in the region to ‘‘manage everything’’.

For the moment, Patel is ‘‘busy collecting evidence against Federation officials’’ before he files a defamation suit against them. Whether he wins or loses, whether Amul charts a separate course or not, farmers in the region whose lives changed forever after the success of Amul was replicated all over are the losers.