Behind CM Bommai scotching of Nandini-Amul buzz: Opp milking of row, regional flare-up fear

Amid a chorus of protests over the sensitive issue, Bommai promptly moved to clarify Shah’s remarks – and assert categorically that there was no proposal to merge the two entities – in order to ensure that the row does not
hurt the saffron party in the run-up to the upcoming state Assembly polls.

The KMF, a unit of the Karnataka Cooperation Department, is the second largest dairy cooperative in India behind Amul, selling milk and dairy products under the brand name Nandini. More than 35 lakh farmers supply milk through district-level milk cooperative federations to the KMF. Over 14,000 milk cooperative societies spread over 22,000 villages involving more than 25 lakh farmers are part of its network. With an annual turnover of about Rs 25,000 crore, the KMF is among the largest cooperative units in Karnataka.

Launching a mega-dairy of the Mandya Milk Union Ltd (Manmul) at Gejjalagere in Mandya district on December 30, Shah said: “I want to assure farmers that Nandini and Amul will work together to ensure that there is a primary dairy in every village. And in three years, there won’t be any village in the state where there is no primary dairy.”

Shah also said that a primary dairy will be established by the National Dairy Development Board and the Ministry of Cooperation in every panchayat in the country over the next three years and that an action plan was ready in this regard. He advised Nandini and Amul to cooperate with each other over technical matters and other aspects related to their organisations.

Seeking to whip up regional sentiments over the row, senior Congress leader and ex-CM, Siddaramaiah, slammed the proposal that Nandini and Amul should work in tandem, alleging that “It was a tactic to hand over the reins of KMF to Gujaratis”.

Referring to complaints that many banks launched from Karnataka had been merged by the Centre a few years ago, Siddaramaiah also charged that “KMF would face the same fate as some of our banks”.

Expressing apprehension that Shah’s remarks indicated that Nandini could be merged with Amul, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president D K Shivakumar said, “There is no need for such a merger as KMF is a profitable enterprise.”

JD(S) leader and ex-CM HD Kumaraswamy said such a move would be a “grave injustice” to the people of Karnataka. “Shah has hatched a ploy to turn Kannadigas into slaves of Gujaratis,” he alleged.

A farmer leader Kurabur Shanthakumar said the KMF had “some shortcomings” but it was not enough to “bat for a merger”. “More than 30 lakh farmers and hundreds of societies linked to KMF are active in the state. KMF has benefited the people of the state immensely since its inception. This is a ploy to privatise the entity,” he said.

A social media campaign #SaveNandini was also launched that quickly gained traction.

Rejecting such reactions in a bid to curb any fresh row on regional line at a time when there has already been a flare-up with Maharashtra over the border-language dispute, CM Bommai dismissed them as “mere speculations”. “What can we do if people imagine something and start criticising it?… Nandini will remain an independent brand,” he said.