At least six directors who are on the board of Amul Dairy boycotted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s event at Mogar in Anand district of Gujarat which was held on Sunday, September 30. The Prime Minister was inaugurating a new chocolate plant along with other projects.
Honorable Prime Minister to inaugurate #Amul‘s Chocolate Plant at Anand.
You can watch the event live on our websitehttps://t.co/419aF7BWH6 pic.twitter.com/ajQYRF4Xty
— Amul.coop (@Amul_Coop) September 30, 2018
Vice-chairman Rajendrasinh Parmar was one among the six who boycotted the event reported The Indian Express. Parmar, who is one of the 17 members on the board of Amul Dairy is also a Congress MLA from Borsad Assembly constituency.
Why did the Amul board members boycott?
Rajendrasinh Parmar told the daily that five other directors, including Dhirubhai Chavda, Juvansinh Chauhan, Rajusinh Parmar, Neetaben Solanki, Chandubhai Parmar were also not in attendance. However, chairperson Ramsinh Parmar, as well as other board members also, remained present at the event. Ramsinh, who quit Congress to join BJP in 2017 ahead of the state’s general elections, was also seen garlanding the Prime Minister.
Rajendrasinh Parmar’s prime concern and reasons for not attending the grand event in spite of being invited was that the event this year had become highly politicised. Parmar informed that not only was his father the vice-chairman but he himself has been the VC for 12 years now. Even though many Prime Ministers attended Amul events previously, this was the first time that a political event was also held. Reportedly, the invitation cards only bore names of BJP leaders.
The previous day, he had told the daily that it does not appear to be an event organised by Amul anymore as it seemed like one political party, the BJP was running the show. The Congress leader also alleged that an estimated Rs 10 crores to Rs 15 crores of the farmers’ money was spent by the dairy for the function which was attended by around a lakh of farmers from different areas of the state. Prime Minister Modi addressed the farmers during the event as well.
The Prime Minister inaugurated several Amul projects including a chocolate plant with a production capacity of 1,000 tonnes per month. A take-home-ration plant and a ready-to-use therapeutic food plant both with a production capacity of 600 tonnes per month were also inaugurated. The three plants are reportedly located at the Mogar complex of Amul with investments worth Rs 300 crores. Anand was also one of the three locations where the Prime Minister was visiting, along with Anjar in Kutch and Rajkot on September 30.
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