Cong won't allow BJP to raise slogan of 'One Nation, One Milk': Jairam Ramesh

Congress MP and general secretary incharge communications Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday attacked the Centre alleging Bharatiya Janata Party BJP of controlling dairy cooperatives in statesRamesh said Amul and Nandini are both national success stories of the White Revolution He said Congress helped nurture this decentralized vision over decades empowering and ensuring autonomy to crores of dairy farmersIn sharp contrast Amit Shah imagines a small collection of centralised organizations under his direct command and control This is the agenda of the new Union Ministry of Cooperation which Shah heads This is why he wishes that Amul will merge with five other cooperative societies to form a multistate cooperative society involving 2 lakh rural diaries the Congress veteran saidRamesh alleged that the central government is establishing total control ignoring the Constitution which clearly demarcates cooperative societies as a state subjectNandini Amul and other cooperatives like OMFED Mother Dairy Vijaya and Aavin empower farmers and help them prosper he said citing the example that the Karnataka Milk Federation KMF which markets Nandini is a federation of 14000 cooperative societies organized into 14 unionsIts 24 lakh members earn over 17 crores a day Amit Shah and the BJP wish to replace the farmers control with their control by consolidating these historic societies into new multistate cooperative societies Ramesh saidAlso Read BJP MLA files objection against Rahul plea for stay of defamation convictionThe attempt to compel KMF to act against its commercial interests is only a step towards the intended goal where all dairy unions become a political arm of the BJP he saidDecisions will not be made in Bengaluru Bhubaneswar Chennai or Pune but in Delhi by Amit Shah the Minister of Cooperation This will disempower dairy farmers and will ultimately threaten their incomes and livelihoods he saidThis pattern has been seen before Karnataka for example saw Vijaya Bank one of the most successful public sector banks merge with the lossmaking Bank of Baroda Similarly the State Bank of Mysore merged with SBI and Corporation Bank merged with Union Bank leaving only one public sector bank with its head office in Karnataka Decisions about the development of Karnataka previously made in Mysuru Mangaluru and Bengaluru are now being made in Baroda and Mumbai the Congress leader saidHe said Congress strongly opposes Amit Shah and the BJPs efforts of centralized controlRamesh said Congress will not allow the time to come when the BJP may raise the slogan of One Nation One MilkThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever