Amidst the row between Amul and Nandini in Karnataka, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi made a political statement by visiting a Nandini store and buying ice cream on Sunday, April 16, and called it “Karnataka’s pride.” Rahul Gandhi had the ice cream at a store in Bengaluru and was accompanied by Congress state president DK Shivakumar and general secretary KC Venugopal.
The Congress leader, who is in Karnataka for campaigning, also called Nandini ‘the best’. Nandini is the flagship brand of the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) and produces a range of dairy products. Rahul Gandhi’s picture and statement have been doing the rounds on social media, and come amidst the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led state leaders expressing their support for Nandini fearing that it might be taken over by Gujarat’s Amul.
The row started in December 2022 when Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced in Karnataka while inaugurating a dairy in Mandya, that Amul Dairy and KMF would be working together. While Amul’s products are already sold in the state, this comment raised concerns over what the implications of the move will be on Nandini.
Karnataka’s Pride - NANDINI is the best! pic.twitter.com/Ndez8finup
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) April 16, 2023
Apart from the fear that Amul would take over Nandini, KMF has called the move “unethical.” According to KMF, Karnataka has a thriving dairy industry that meets the needs of the state market and exports the surplus to other states. In this context, the presence of another government-owned dairy production is being opposed.
The state BJP has been trying to defend the decision citing that competition would only help KMF get better and that other Amul products are already on sale in Bengaluru. BJP leaders have sought to play down the furore over the issue. Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya claimed that objections from opposition parties arose only because of their hatred towards Amul as it is from Gujarat, and because both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah hail from the state.