Why India’s two biggest political parties are fighting over an iconic dairy brand

Opposition parties claim Amul’s entry into Karnataka will destroy the state’s 2.5 million milk farmers

Amul announced its launch in Karnataka earlier this month and kicked up a political slugfest ahead of state elections (Zee Business / YouTube)

A Gujarat-based iconic milk co-operative’s decision to enter the Karnataka market has kicked up a political row ahead of elections in the southern state.

The brand Amul tweeted earlier this month: “A new wave of freshness with milk and curd is coming to Bengaluru (in Karnataka). More information coming soon. #LaunchAlert.”

The reaction to the announcement was unexpected. Political parties in India started a war of words – a reaction that many experts claimed was targeted at the elections in Karnataka in May.

Amul’s launch in the southern state was seen as a direct threat to Karnataka’s local and biggest milk cooperative, the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) which sells milk and curd under the brand name Nandini. Hashtags such as #SaveNandini and #GobackAmul soon started to trend on Twitter.

Political pundits see the launch as a clash between Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation’s (GCMMF) brand Amul vs KMF’s Nandini.

Karnataka goes to elections on 10 May and the state has been witnessing an array of rallies and campaigning by political parties. India’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and opposition Indian National Congress (INC) – two of the biggest political parties in India – have been at loggerheads over Amul’s announcement.

On 10 April, a member of parliament from BJP, Tejasvi Surya, told News18 that Congress was using the Amul versus Nandini debate to fuel its election campaign.

“If you have a problem with Amul, then you should also have problems with brands like Arokya, Heritage from Tamil Nadu, Thirumala, and Dodla from Andhra Pradesh. Why only target Amul? People of Karnataka clearly know that it is not love for Nandini but their hate towards Amul as it is from Gujarat; and Amit Shah and Narendra Modi are from Gujarat,” the MP from Karnataka’s capital Bengaluru claimed.

Congress has responded by saying that Amul’s entry will destroy the state’s 2.5 million milk farmers. Another political party with stakes in the elections, the Janata Dal (Secular), has joined the chorus.

The milk farmers’ vote in Karnataka is crucial for elections and hence winning them carries a huge bonus for political parties.

Opposition leader from JD(S), HD Kumaraswamy, said: “Amul is holding the Karnataka Milk Federation and the farmers in a stranglehold”. He added that “Kanandiagas (people of Karnataka) should rebel against Amul”.

Mr Kumarswamy alleged: “One nation, one Amul, one milk, one Gujarat seems to be the official stand of the Central government.”

Another Karnataka Congress leader, DK Shivakumar, was quoted by ANI as saying: “We already have Nandini, which is a better brand than Amul. We don’t need any Amul – our water, our milk, and our soil is strong.”

“You have already stolen banks, ports and airports from Kannadigas. Are you trying to steal Nandini (KMF) from us?” Congress leader Siddaramaiah tweeted to prime minister Narendra Modi.

Mr Shivakumar accused the BJP of hijacking the homegrown Nandini brand and said “Kannadigas will never sell their self-respect”.

This storm kicked up by a dairy brand’s entry in a state is bound to have some impact on the state elections, analysts predicted. Some believe that this is being perceived as an attack on the Kannadiga identity.

Indian Express quoted Anand Kumar, one of the directors of KMF, as saying that the cooperative is “far behind in marketing and promoting the Nandini brand despite having a better quality of milk than Amul. Which is why #SaveNandini is important”.

He told the paper: “Although the usage of Amul milk is just 10 per cent, their advertising is 90 per cent, which is a big concern for Karnataka’s dairy farmers. We need to implement a robust advertising campaign to enhance the brand value of Nandini and create awareness among people.”

KMF is going to appeal to the National Dairy Development Board to stop Amul from taking over, hear their demands, and keep KMF the leading brand. The Karnataka cooperative is also planning to hold a protest “depending on the situation”.

The issue of Amul vs Nandini has become so big that a hotel association, the Bruhat Bangalore Hotels’ Association (BBHA) that represents about 24,000 big and small hotels in the city, has said they will back Nandini over Amul going forward.

But the chief minister of Karnataka, BJP’s Basavaraj Bommai, has stated clearly that Amul will not be prevented from entering the state as Nandini products are also sold in other states. He said he will help the homegrown brand to compete with Amul.

The fear of Amul taking over Nandini in Karnataka, however, goes back to a comment home minister Amit Shah made some time ago in which he said that the Gujarat cooperative that sells Amul and KMF would work together to set up dairies in all villages in Karnataka. But this was seen as an attempt to merge the two cooperatives.

Meanwhile, the managing director of GCMMF, Jayen Mehta, was quoted as saying by Financial Express that “Amul is currently looking at e-commerce or quick commerce channels and is not looking at general trade”.