Congress Karnataka chief D K Shivakumar visited a Nandini Milk parlour in the Hassan district on Monday amid the ongoing charges and counter-charges between the ruling BJP and the Opposition Congress and JD(S) over Amul’s announcement of foraying into the Karnataka market.
Shivakumar expressed support for Karnataka’s homegrown milk brand Nandini, which he claimed was better than that of the Gujarat-based dairy cooperative Amul.
He was seeing people buying and consuming Nandini products. “We already have Nandini, which is a better brand than Amul… We don’t need any Amul…our water, our milk, and our soil are strong,” Shivakumar told the media.
“In Karnataka, it’s a question of our farmer’s rights. More than 70 lakh farmers produce milk and give it to Nandini. Gujarat’s Amul is also by farmers. But it’s not right to push Amul forward and Nandini back. Their (BJP) government has not provided any help to farmers. We have to save our product and our farmers,” Shivakumar said.
The Congress leader said that the ruling BJP government had “raised the prices of all dairy products and they haven’t done any help to farmers. In between we are in the situation where we can’t sell milk.”
Meanwhile, Police detained workers of Karnataka Rakshana Vedike in Bengaluru, who protested over Amul’s entry into the State.
