Santosh Kumar Sharma was an ordinary man till the other day. An NCDC retired official his day would pass reading books and evening with friends debating current topics. But all this changed when NCUI Chief Executive N Satyanarayan searched him out and assigned him the job of writing books.
And Thursday proved a big day for Sharma when the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi released two books written by him. As camera clicked his photographs with Modi, friends asked for parties. “Our Sharmaji has become a celebrity overnight”, they said.
It bears recall that a function was organized at Vigayan Bhawan on Thursday to mark the birth cemetery celebrations of late Laxman Madahav Rao Inamdar. On this occasion, Prime Minster Narendar Modi released two books “Paras Mani – LaxmanMadahv Rao Inamdar” in Hindi and “Nine Gems of Indian Cooperative Moment” in English authored by Santosh Kumar Sharma- ex director of National Cooperative Development Cooperation (NCDC).
Present on the stage were Union ministers of agriculture Radha Mohan Singh, state ministers of agriculture and Jyotindra Mehta, President of Sahakar Bharati.
Talking to our correspondent Sharma said the book in Hindi is devoted entirely to the life and cooperative philosophy of Inamdar also popularly known as Vakil Saheb. According to him, Vakil Saheb was a great admirer of ancient Indian wisdom and was worried about the rapid erosion of values in society as also the onslaught of capitalism on our economy.
The second book is in English and describes the philosophy of nine cooperative stalwarts of a bygone era including eminent cooperative leaders like Varghese Kurein, Vaikunthbai Mehta, Dr. D R Gadgil besides Laxman Rao Inamdar, to name a few.
“I was inspired to write about them because of their unflinching integrity, selfless devotion, and honesty of purpose for the economic emancipation of poor. They all believed cooperative to be the only panacea for all ills”, Sharma underlined.
