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By Sagay Raj, Ravish Pal Singh, Hemender Sharma, Pankaj P. Khelkar: Cooperatives play a big role in the country’s rural economy and political parties that control these cooperatives also largely control the manner in which the electorate votes. Political leaders in the BJP, Congress and NCP have managed to retain their bastions, simply because of their hold on cooperatives, and through them, control the rural economy.
The cooperative movement produces long-term and sustainable influences, which form a strong political base for the political parties, especially in states like Gujarat.
Whether it is Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra or Bihar, every political party has been using the cooperative’s role to assert itself, says a political commentator, Sandeep Shashtri.
“Politicians are present in various fields such as health, education and agriculture. In Maharashtra, we have an example in the field of education. They are all headed by people from politics and many of them are MLAs and MPs,” Sandeep Shashtri told India Today.
“There are similar examples across the country where the capture of cooperatives has happened by political leaders to serve their political gains. If you look at the sugar lobby in Maharashtra, most of the NCP leaders are linked to the sugar cooperative,” he stated.
SITUATION IN MADHYA PRADESH
Senior journalist Kaushal Kishore Chaturvedi, who has been tracking the politics of Madhya Pradesh, opined, “In Gujarat, the ruling party has been using Amul’s brand name for their political gains but no such thing has been seen in MP. This is because the political situation in Gujarat is different from that of Madhya Pradesh.”
“Gujarat has a large number of milk producers due to the White Revolution, which serves as a big vote bank. But in Madhya Pradesh, about 2.5 to 3 lakh milk producers are associated with the Sanchi Milk Cooperative Society and political parties have not used them for their benefit,” he explained.
“Secondly, Madhya Pradesh is a state that heavily relies on agriculture, and therefore political parties focus more on farmers and implement agri-centric themes,” Kaushal Kishore Chaturvedi told India Today.
“There are about 7000 rural milk cooperative societies under the Madhya Pradesh Milk Union Cooperative Limited. Apart from this, there are cooperative milk unions in Indore, Bhopal, Ujjain, Gwalior, Jabalpur and Sagar in total 6 divisions,” he added.
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However, contrary to this, Desh Deep Saxena, a senior journalist, said that politicians in Madhya Pradesh have always controlled and used cooperatives to further their interests.
“This is happening because loans are disbursed from cooperative banks and politicians use it as a tool. And this is the reason why cooperative banks run into heavy losses in MP, “Desh Deep Saxena, a senior journalist who has worked on cooperatives extensively explained.
‘POLITICIANS MISUSE COOPERATIVES’
Talking to India Today, social activist Yogesh Pandey, said, “There are politicians who have misused cooperatives for their own benefit. 25 years ago in Maharashtra there were only 25 to 30 private sugar mills, but now the number of private sugar mills has grown to 105. How did this happen?”
“This has happened because most of the cooperative sugar factories were not managed properly and were declared as ill. They were later sold to the relatives of politicians who were part of the management board for a meager amount to transform them into private sugar mills,” Yogesh Pandey said.
Pandey has also alleged that close associates of Ajit Pawar purchased Ambalika Sugar Mill, while people close to MLA Rohit Pawar purchased Kannad Sugar Mill.
“All parties except Shiv Sena are involved in purchasing sugar factories. Be it Congress, NCP or BJP, “says Yogesh Pandey.
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He further added that around seven District Cooperative Credit Socities (DCCB) Banks, considered the backbone of the rural financial integrity system, have gone bankrupt due to irregularities in the management and not following the RBI norms.
Meanwhile, former Congress leader Ratnakar Mahajan has applauded efforts taken by NCP chief Sharad Pawar and his family for efficiently running cooperative units in and around Baramati.
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