Tribute to Lal Bahadur Shastri on his birthday

Today, 2nd October is the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, father of the nation and a true nationalist, who foresaw a bright future for independent India; independence not just political but also economic, social and cultural independence and therefore fought till his last breath on his ideals of self-reliance, empowerment of down-trodden, rural development, fight against religion & casteism, belief in self and pride in the nation. 

While much has been written about Mahatma Gandhi and remembered every year in form of national holiday on 2nd October, incidentally today also happens to be the birth anniversary of Lal Bahadur Shatsri, 2nd Prime Minister of independent India and a true nation builder, who gave the slogan "Jai Jawan, Jai Kisaan" and aptly focussed on nation building at ground level by developing villages on one side while protecting the borders on other side.

I take this opportunity to pay tributes to Lal Bahadur Shastri, who led the country through White Revolution apart from Green revolution. He was the one, who saw potential in Amul movement early on and decided to replicate the model across the country, leading to creation of National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) with full autonomy and making India not just self-reliant in milk but also the largest milk producer in the country.

It happened during the year 1964, when Amul experiment started at Anand got decent size and shape and had established its farmers network not just in Kaira District but the model also started percolating to nearby districts in Mehsana, Sabarkantha, etc. At that time, Amul was looking at setting up a cattle-feed factory and it got support from OXFAM as well as Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of UN under World Food Programme whereby all the equipment were donated by these agencies while Government of Gujarat provided land for the project at Kanjari village and other support from Government of India. 

Lal Bahadur Shastri, the then Prime Minister was invited at the inauguration of this cattle-feed factory  as a Chief Guest. While visiting the dairy plant and cattle-feed plant, he was amazed at the model with farmers ownership, technically sound professionals with quality equipment, product manufacturing & distribution expertise as well as popular brand created across the country. He wanted to further understand the factors responsible for making this model successful and decide to stay back.

He stayed at a nearby village and had local farmer family of the village as his host. Not only that, he had dinner with the villagers and interacted with all of them till late in the night. He deliberated on these discussions the next day with Tribhuvandas Patel & Dr. V Kurien and expressed his desire to replicate the Amul pattern all across the country and requested Amul for this help.

On returning nack to Delhi, he also had immediate interactions with his cabinet colleagues and started work on establishment of a body for replication of this Anand pattern and simultaneously wrote a letter to all States explaining his experience from the visit as well as plan in that regard. Few excerpts from the letter are reproduced below:

"Apart from the technical efficiency of its processing units, the union’s most striking achievements have been in the socio-economic field. By establishing a steady and remunerative market for the milk that is produced throughout the year, this union has given the farmers an incentive to adopt scientific practices of animal husbandry to produce more milk with lower cost of production and thereby to further increase their income. Thus, the union is based really on rural economy and the benefits go back to the farmers, thereby gradually raising the general level of the dairy industry and also the standard of living of the farmers.

Besides the production and marketing of milk and milk products, the Kaira Union provides technical advice to other milk schemes and to organizations interested in dairy schemes. It trains personnel for the various milk schemes in the country. The Government of India (Ministry of Community Development and Cooperation) propose to organize very shortly a National Federation of Dairy Cooperatives with head quarters at Anand, so that with support of technical experts of the Kaira Union a vigorous programme for establishing dairy cooperatives in the country could be taken up.

The importance of milk and milk products in providing nutritious food to the country cannot be over emphasized. There is also considerable scope for improvement in our methods of livestock breeding and nutrition. For this purpose we envisage a large programme of setting up cooperative dairies during the Fourth Plan and this will, no doubt, be based on the Anand model. If we can transplant the spirit of Anand in many other places, it will also result in rapidly transforming the socio-economic conditions of the rural areas and in our achieving the objective of a socialistic pattern of society."

This led to the creation of White Revolution in the country under Operation Flood Programme and the results gained are for everyone to enjoy today.

However, the above incident also shows the character of a true nation builder with his humility to stay in a remote village with a farmer family, interact with them and understand their pain points, having a vision to identify potential of this movement on overall rural economy of the country and sharing it with all concerned, a plan to replicate the same with full autonomy at fast pace, an eye on the nutrition requirements of the country and how this project can alleviate hunger and provide quality nutrition to all Indians! Salute to this great leader!