My Father Was an Atheist: ‘Milkman’ Kurien’s Kin on Conversion Row
“Focus on Verghese Kurien’s work building institutions, ushering in India’s White Revolution,” his daughter said.
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Speaking up in her father and “India’s milkman” Verghese Kurien’s defence, Nirmala Kurien on Monday, 26 November, rubbished claims that her father diverted dairy cooperative Amul’s profit to fund religious conversions in the country.
Nirmala was responding to allegations made by BJP leader Dileep Sanghani who accused Kurien, late founder-chairman of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, for donating profits made by Amul to Christian missionaries and fueling religious conversions.
"My father was an atheist and, despite being a Christian, he was cremated as per his wishes. So was my mother after her death," Nirmala said after an event marking Dr Kurien's birth anniversary.
Kurien is widely known as Father of the White Revolution in India.
Dileep Sanghani, BJP leader from Gujarat, on Saturday, 24 November said, “Kurien used to donate money to Christian missionaries from the profits earned by Amul, where poor farmers and milk producers of Gujarat deposited their hard-earned money.”
Sanghani further alleged that Kurien received support from the country because of the donations he gave to Christian missionaries.
“Focus on What Kurien Did for Farmers Instead”
"We should ignore such statements and focus on work done by Verghese Kurien in building institutions that ushered India's White Revolution," Nirmala Kurien said and added that “we should also focus on things like the changes Kurien made in the life of cattle-rearing farmers”.
Sanghani, who is the vice-chairman of the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED) and a former Gujarat minister, also said that despite being only an ‘employee’, Kurien became more popular than Tribhuvandas Patel, who had founded the AMPUL under the guidance of the country’s first deputy prime minister, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
‘Kurien's Religion Was That of Each Farmer of India’
Responding to Sanghani's charge, the managing director of Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation, Dr RS Sodhi had said that Dr Kurien's religion was that of each farmer of the country.
Sanghani had said Tribhuvandas Patel was the founder of Amul but farmers' money was donated for tribals' religious conversions in south Gujarat by Dr Kurien.
Sodhi recalled a call he received in the wee hours when Dr Kurien passed away at a hospital in Nadiad. "Me and my colleague went there and asked Nirmala and Mrs Kurien as to where he should be buried (since he was a Christian)," he had said.
"They told us that his wish was that he be cremated.”
He was cremated at the same place as Tribhuvandas Patel.
“After three months when Mrs Kurien died in Mumbai, she was also cremated," Sodhi said.
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