Gujarat polls: Anand, a depleting milk hub in Congress bastion

Shrikant Patel says there is not much hope from the milk industry at Gujarat’s famed dairy hub Anand. Patel works at the Nalini Arvind and TV Patel Arts College at the Vallabh Vidyanagar, the education hub instituted by Sardar Patel, but he’s a farmer, too. He had a dozen cows till two years ago, but now he has just two milch cows for his personal consumption.

“The production of milk is costly, the fodder comes for Rs 1500 for a 20 kg bag and so the milk costs Rs 60 per litre. But no one wants to buy at that price,” he says. He stopped milk farming as profits dropped.

Read | Winning Anand after 25 years, can Congress milk a victory and do an encore?

It is an unfortunate turn for a region that birthed the milk revolution of the 1970s, which not only put Anand in the national imagination but India on the world map for being the largest producer of milk. The region is also politically fertile — two of the state’s tall political leaders, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and former chief minister Madhavsihn Solanki, were born here.

Anand is also one of the last few bastions of the Congress in the state. In 2017, Congress won five of the region’s seven constituencies — Anand, Petlad, Borsad, Angkala, and Sojitra. The BJP won two: Umreth and Khambath. As the BJP looking to bettering its tally of 99 from 2017, the party has brought in Prime Minister Narendra Modi to campaign. He held one rally at Vidyanagar last week and is scheduled to hold one at Sojitra on Friday.

Bhanu S Parmar who is part of the CSDS says that Anand and neighbouring Kheda were known in Gujarat as “Charotar”, meaning a country of gold. “In those days, Anand would have at least one person per house who had travelled or stayed abroad in countries like the UK, Canada, Australia or South Africa. The farmers had a great irrigation system before the government brought in any,” he says.

The milk business also gave the BJP its initial foray into the state — the Patidars, who supported the BJP’s entry into the state, were traditionally into milk farming, Parmar adds.

Milk federation leaders usually transcend into electors politics and there are several candidates this term from these federations. Amul vice-chairman Rajendrasihn Parmar is standing for elections from Borsat as a Congress candidate.

Elsewhere, in the Panchmahal district, Jetha Bharwad, chairman of Panchmahal Dairy and Deputy Speaker of the Gujarat Assembly is standing for elections from the Shahera seat as a BJP candidate. Shankar Choudhary, chairman of the state’s largest dairy, Banas Dairy, is contesting for BJP from Tharad, and Sardar Singh Choudhary, director of the Mehsana Diary is contesting from Kheralu for BJP.

Congress’s Alpesh Purohit says that there’s an attempt to privatise the milk corporations. “Some months ago, they attempted to import cheaper milk from outside at Rs 20 per litre and stopped after massive protests. Procurement payments are delayed, fodder is priced high — these are just attempts at tiring out the mil farmers,” says Purohit.

Tejas Patel of the BJP does not agree. “There is no intent to privatise, though one must agree that terminating workers is not easy within any cooperative. The price of milk is too high, and unlike counties abroad, the cow is revered here and lives with the owner till they die,” he says, adding that due to the high demand for A2 milk, the government is trying to work on a breeding programme to come up with such a breed via test tubes.

As for the import of milk from abroad, he says, “We must remember that while Anand has milk producers, there are consumers, too. What will they do?”

Karamsad in Vidyanagar is where Sardar Patel was born, and Sardar House has a no-fuss look about it. It is interesting to note that in a place where Sardar Patel was born, the electoral prospects of the Congress outweighs the BJP’s, despite the BJP’s complaints that the Congress did not do enough to honour his legacy. Purohit says that building a statue (at Kevadia) by displacing tribals is no way to honour his legacy. “Do you think Sardar would like the fact that hundreds of tribals were left without a home, or that iron was imported from China to build the statue of a man who was against idolatry,” he asks. Patel says that the Congress’s accusations are because they missed the chance to honour him when there was time.