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Journalism of Courage
A political row erupted in Karnataka in the run-up to the Assembly elections in May over the entry of Amul, the Gujarat state milk cooperative brand, and its implications for the Karnataka Milk Federation’s (KMF) “Nandini” brand that is closely tied to the identity of Kannadigas. A couple of months since the elections, the Congress and the BJP are still squabbling over “Nandini”, this time over its ghee, or clarified butter.
The BJP on Monday accused the Congress-run state government of being “anti-Hindu”, accusing it of stopping the “supply of the ‘Nandini’ brand ghee to the Tirupati Venkateswara temple in Andhra Pradesh for making its famous laddus given as ‘prasad’ to devotees”. The following day, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah claimed that the supply had actually been suspended one-and-a-half years ago when the BJP was in power.
Karnataka BJP chief Nalin Kumar Kateel on Monday tweeted, “Nandini ghee supply to Tirupati Laddu has been stopped due to @INCKarnataka policy of indifference towards temples, Hindu beliefs, and devotion. Fifty years of legacy with Tirupati is watered down and this proves @siddaramaiah’s policy of indifference towards Hindus.”
Soon, former BJP MLA C T Ravi joined in, tweeting, “CONgress shamelessly politicised Nandini issue during the Assembly elections and milked it to malign Amul. After coming to power, the CONgress government increased the price of milk thereby making it impossible for Nandini to supply its ghee to TTD board at the earlier price. Thanks to the incompetent CONgress government, Nandini will no longer supply ghee to prepare the famous Tirupati Laddus. It is very evident that CONgress is hell-bent on destroying Suvarna Karnataka to pursue its agenda.”
Breaking his silence, Siddaramaiah tweeted, “The supply of Nandini ghee to Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh has not been stopped today or yesterday. The supply of ghee to Tirupati was suspended one-and-a-half years ago, during the @BJP4Karnataka government’s tenure. Honorable Member of Parliament @nalinkateel, tell me now, was the previous BJP government against Hindu religious beliefs and devotion? Or was only the then Chief Minister @BSBommai (Basavaraj Bommai) anti-Hindu?”
He added, “The life of the dairy farmers is important to us along with the religious faith of the people. Therefore, if the Tirupati temple agrees to give the price we ask for, in the interest of the State’s farmers, we have no problem in supplying ghee.”
The KMF supplied ghee to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) that runs the Tirupati Venkateswara temple, for years. Annually, the KMF supplied about 2,800 tonnes of ghee to the TTD. KMF chairperson Bheema Naik on Sunday explained that the federation stopped ghee supplies to the TTD one-and-a-half years ago after the latter called for a tender and asked the KMF to participate in the process. “Earlier, the ghee was not supplied at competitive rates as it is done now via e-procurement, where the lowest bidder gets the tender. We can’t compromise on our price. The present supplier is providing ghee to them at a low rate, which we can’t match,” Naik said.
Tirumala Temple Devasthanams (TTD) officials said that Tirupati laddus had used Nandini ghee only for a year in the past two decades.
A V Dharma Reddy, Executive Officer of TTD, told news agency PTI: “In the last 20 years, they supplied only once…The KMF met just 20 percent of TTD’s requirement once, taking a full year to do it, while it was supposed to do it in just six months,” Reddy added.
The seeds of the row over Nandini were laid in December 2022 when Union Home Minister Amit Shah said at a rally that Amul should work together with the KMF in the state. “Amul and Nandini will together work towards setting up a primary dairy in every village of Karnataka in three years.” The statement did not go down well with the Opposition. With elections approaching, they launched an attack on the BJP, claiming that such a move would be against Karnataka.
The KMF was founded in 1974 as Karnataka Dairy Development Corporation (KDDC) to implement a dairy development project involving 16 milk unions across the state, covering 26.38 lakh milk producers associated with 15,043 cooperative societies operating at the rural level. Given this wide network, no government in Karnataka has tried to dictate terms to the KMF. A majority of the milk producers are from the Old Mysuru regions such as Mandya, Mysuru, Ramanagara and Kolar, and the central Karnataka district of Davangere, making them an important electoral constituency since they are spread across 120-130 Assembly seats. In the elections, the Congress made gains in the Old Mysuru region, where the JD(S) earlier ruled the roost, and broke the BJP dominance in central Karnataka.
