Union minister Giriraj Singh on Thursday dubbed Prime Minister Narendra Modi a "management guru" and also "headmaster" who ushered in the Sweet Revolution in the country. Singh, the minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, was speaking at the 42nd convocation of the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) here.
Former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri should be given credit for the Green Revolution instead of associating it only with agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan, the minister opined. "Swaminathan was a scientist, an instrument for introducing the Green Revolution. It was Lal Bahadur Shastri who had the willpower to bring in such a revolution.....whenever we remember Shastri, we will automatically remember Swaminathan...Today, thanks to that initiative, we export food grains," he said.
It was followed by the White Revolution in milk production led by Verghese Kurien, and now there has been a third revolution, he said, referring to the Modi government's endeavour to promote apiculture or bee-keeping to boost honey production. "....We are also students and the name of our headmaster is Narendra Modi. He called it the Sweet Revolution and started it from Gujarat," the minister said. "After the (coronavirus) pandemic, Modi is known as a management guru and the entire world bowed head in front of him out of respect," the senior BJP leader added.
Thanks to Kurien and the National Dairy Development Board, milk selling became more profitable than growing cereal crops, the minister said. Singh urged the graduating students to work for rural India and find solutions to improve the lives of people living in the villages. He also said that the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) should explore ways to make Amul Shrikhand popular in other parts of the country as it was not easily available outside Gujarat.
"Everyone needs food but no one wants to do farming. Pizza originated in Europe but now it is popular across the world. Mozzarella cheese is a key ingredient of the pizza. I urge you to think of installing Mozzarella cheese-making machines in villages to meet this demand," he said.
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