Nandini vs Amul in Karnataka: Is it politics over milk or distrust for Amit Shah?

For the first time, a daily essential and cooperative field is being debated in the elections.

More than candidates and their poll prospects, the most debated topic in Karnataka today is Nandini vs Amul. For the first time, a daily essential and cooperative field is being debated in the elections. The polka-dotted frock-wearing Amul girl’s daily dose of humour is no longer bringing smiles to the faces of Kannadigas. For a change, the vocal cords of the fiery BJP leaders are being given a rest — they are always on the backfoot when it comes to questioning their Delhi leaders.

In the West Bengal 2020 assembly elections, the Trinamool Congress successfully fought the elections making ‘Bengali pride’ and ‘native vs outsider’ the poll planks to fight the saffron camp, led by Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah. She left the Modi-Shah camp stunned, with her party securing a two-thirds majority. In Karnataka, it is the ‘Kannada Asmitè vs Amul invasion’. ‘Go back Amul’, and ‘Boycott Amul’ are trending online.

Championing a home-grown brand

Congress and JD(S) leaders have been hitting out at the BJP for silently allowing Amul to ‘dislodge’ the Nandini brand of milk and curd. Even pro-Kannada organisations have hit the streets over the issue.

A Bengaluru hoteliers’ association has announced that it will boycott Amul products and support only Nandini dairy products.

The survival of KMF is directly related to the survival of the 26 lakh farmers who supply about 80 lakh litres of milk daily.

Scepticism over Shah’s intentions

The intentions of Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah have been questioned since last December. During a visit to Mandya to inaugurate an upgraded cooperative milk union, he had said the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF), promoter of Nandini dairy products, and Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), popularly known as Amul (Anand Milk Union Limited), would work together in establishing primary dairies in every village in Karnataka in three years’ time. KMF would get technical support and cooperation from Amul. If both work together, it would benefit farmers across the country, he declared. It was seen by the Opposition as a ploy to merge KMF with Amul. Shah never bothered to react to the allegations.

On top of this, his attempts to promote Hindi have not gone down well with Kannadigas. It was the direction of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (Fassi) to print the word ‘Dahi’ (the Hindi equivalent to curd) on curd packets in all states. Shah was suspected of being behind this rule. When the ‘Dahi vs Mosaru’ issue (the Kannada equivalent of curd) was about to subside, Amul posted three contents on April 5, saying it was coming to Bengaluru to sell Taaza milk and curd via the e-commerce route. Shah, a Gujarati, has been seen as a promoter of his state’s milk business at the expense of KMF. The controversy erupted when KMF faced a milk shortage, which is common in the summer. But the agitators see this as an artificially created situation.

A lucrative market

Amul’s Managing Director, Jayen Mehta, has told the media that there will be no competition with Nandini and that both will coexist. A litre of Nandini toned milk costs Rs 40, while the price of Amul milk is Rs 54 a litre, he pointed out. The same pricing argument has been put forth by Karnataka Cooperation Minister, ST Somashekar.

This is a weak argument. The price may not be a deterring factor for lakhs of Bengalureans. A popular brand of organic cow milk is getting home delivered in Bengaluru at Rs 43 for 500 ml and the market for organic milk is steadily growing. Amul is already selling in Hubballi and Belagavi albeit in small quantities. But that may not be the case with Bengaluru, where purchasing capacity is higher. It is also a city of migrants from the North, so, a Gujarati product may be preferred over time. Mehta, the new MD, may perhaps have been trying to explore new horizons to push up sales. But his words have been given a political hue.

AS Premanath, former MD of KMF, says, “Successive governments have been nurturing KMF for decades. The government gives it a subsidy of Rs 5 a litre. KMF and Amul have been maintaining cordial relations. There is a give-and-take policy, too. But there is an unwritten rule in the cooperative sector not to trespass into each other’s business domain. I hope this is followed as it was in the past."