Last Update: April 09, 2023, 23:22 IST
Senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah. (PTI)
Amul’s move is seen by many, especially the opposition party KMF, as a threat to its famous dairy brand ‘Nandini’. They also see it as an attempt to crush KMF, amid the story of its merger with Amul.
Continuing his attack against the ruling BJP after Amul announced its plan to sell milk and curd in a Bengaluru market, senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Sunday tweeted to ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was visiting, was the purpose of his visit “to loot the kingdom”.
Alleging that the state’s milk production has taken a hit since the day Union Cooperation Minister Amit Shah spoke about the possibility of merging Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) with Amul, the former chief minister put out a series of tweets. I asked the Prime Minister what role he had in this.
Amul’s move is seen by many, especially the opposition party KMF, as a threat to its famous dairy brand ‘Nandini’. They also see it as an attempt to crush KMF, amid the story of its merger with Amul.
“Is your purpose of coming to Karnataka to give to Karnataka or to loot from Karnataka? You have already stolen banks, ports and airports from Kannadigas. Are you now trying to steal Nandini (KMF) from us?” Siddaramaiah asked.
“It was Baroda Bank of Gujarat that took over the membership of our Vijaya Bank. The ports and airports were handed over to Adani of Gujarat. Now, Gujarat’s Amul is planning to eat our KMF (Nandini). Mr Narendra Modi, are we the enemy of Gujaratis?” Instead of giving 2 crore jobs a year to the youth, Narendra Modi They took away the jobs of Kannadigas from our banks, ports and airports, he added, adding, “Now the Karnataka BJP wants to harm the prospects of our farmers by giving KMF to Amul.” Modi was in Mysuru and Chamarajanagar districts to attend an event. To mark the completion of 50 years of ‘Project Tiger’.
Siddaramaiah launched the attack despite Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai giving a clarification in this regard on Saturday. Describing ‘Nandini’ as the pride of Karnataka, Bommai said that his government has taken all measures to make it number one nationally, “Nandini’s market reach is wide, there is no need to fear Amul.” Congress politicizing everything is not in the interest of the state. State Cooperation Minister ST Somashekar on Sunday reiterated that there is no proposal to merge KMF with Amul.
“If Amul sells milk online at Rs 57 per litre, we sell it at Rs 39. We are shipping our products to Tamil Nadu and other states,” he said, adding that eradicating the Nandini brand was impossible.
State BJP general secretary CN Ashwathnarayan criticized former chief ministers Siddaramaiah of the Congress and HD Kumaraswamy of the JDS for making “irresponsible statements” on the issue.
Kumaraswamy had said that it was clear that Amul was trying to engage in unnecessary competition with KMF and was planning to trample Nandini on day-to-day basis, adding that “unhealthy competition between renowned sister organizations in the cooperative sector Not in the interest of KMF buys milk directly from farmers through cooperatives in thousands of villages in the state.”
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