Three days after the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd denied that two members of a dairy delegation from Gujarat had harassed a woman while on a study tour to New Zealand , Vipul Patel, Chairman of Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union Limited – the oldest milk cooperative of Gujarat known as Amul Dairy – on Thursday accused the GCMMF of “tarnishing the Amul brand name”.
Stating that no director of “the original” Amul Dairy was part of the delegation that toured New Zealand, Patel threatened that Amul Dairy would “revoke the rights to use the brand name” by GCMMF and other milk cooperatives.
Speaking to media persons at his office in Anand, Patel said that he had sent out a “notice” to GCMMF seeking that it should be clarified that no director of “Amul” was part of the delegation.
Patel said, “I have been receiving calls from several persons who have read reports about Amul’s directors being accused of harassing a woman… I want to clarify that Amul Dairy has no part in whatever happened there. None of the directors of Amul Dairy, Anand – the original Amul Dairy conceptualised by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Tribhuvandas Patel and Verghese Kurien – were part of this delegation.”
“Whether an incident happened or did not happen… there is a saying that if you pick up dung, some dust will come with it… something may have happened… as the GCMMF is denying it, but there was no need for the delegation to be called ‘Amul delegation’,” he added.
