Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates Amuls ultra-modern chocolate plant in Anand, Gujarat, on Sunday. (Photo: PTI)
About six directors on the board of Amul Dairy, including vice-chairman Rajendrasinh Parmar, boycotted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s event at Mogar in Anand district on Sunday, where the PM inaugurate a chocolate plant and a slew of other projects.
“I did not go for the event, along with five other directors, including Dhirubhai Chavda, Juvansinh Chauhan, Rajusinh Parmar, Neetaben Solanki, Chandubhai Parmar. I told the chairman and the managing director that I have no objection to the Prime Minister’s visit. But it should not be political function… At the function, they ended up patting their own backs. Amul did not gain anything from the event,” said Rajendrasinh, who is a Congress MLA from Borsad Assembly.
Rajendrasinh is one of the 17 members on the board of Amul Dairy.
However, chairperson Ramsinh Parmar — who had quit as a Congress MLA last year and joined BJP ahead of last year’s Assembly elections — along with other members of the board remained present and also garlanded the PM.
Rajendrasinh had, on Saturday, claimed that the Amul Dairy event was being hijacked by the BJP. He said that the party had put up posters of it’s local leaders and flags all over the venue.
“I have been the vice-chairman of Amul for the past 12 years. My father was also the vice-chairman. So many prime ministers have come to Amul, but a political event was never held. The invitation card also bore names only of BJP leaders. Today, only leaders from one party were seen on stage,” Parmar told The Indian Express.
Citing reasons for his boycott of the event, the Congress leader alleged that an estimated Rs 10-15 crore of farmer’s money was spent by the dairy on the function, where over a lakh farmers from different areas of Anand, Kheda and Vadodara were in attendance.