IFFCO’s Nehru Lecture: Namvar enthralls audience

”In the age of globalization when farmers are compelled to commit suicide, IFFCO offers a ray of hope” said eminent literary critic and intellectual Namvar Singh who delivered IFFCO’s 27th Jawahar Lal Nehru Memorial Lecture on Thursday at the NCUI auditorium in Delhi.

”Nehru might have written books in English but communicated with the people in Hindi. He was in fact a man of literature first”, Namvar Singh said. He touched upon various aspects of language, literature and culture later in his speech.

Starting with Nehru he went on to talk about the literary contributions of Iqbal, Tulsidas, Nirala, Premchand, Gorky and finally Ravindra Nath Thakur. He applauded Iqbal for advocating building of not a mosque but a Shivala ( Temple for Shiva), complimented Premchand for bringing farmers at the centre of literary writings , called Nirala the avatar of Tulsidas and congratulated Shrilal Shukla for focusing on the lives of poor farmers.

The literary feast was enjoyed by a jam-packed NCUI auditorium where cooperative crowds felt transported to the hitherto unknown world – that is literature.

IFFCO Managing Director thanked Namvar Singh for agreeing to grace the occasion. I know Namverji for the past 52 years and despite not keeping good health he obliged us by coming here, Dr U S  Awasthi said. He also used the occasion to thank the Directors and employees for making IFFCO the number one cooperative organization in the world.

On the news of NCUI President Chandra Pal Singh Yadav making it to Rajya Sabha, a visibly happy Awasthi said ” now the voice of cooperatives would be heard in parliament. Nehruji thought cooperative a viable economic model. Since the owner-producer-consumer are one and the same in this model, exploitation does not happen. It was precisely this that made capitalists gang up against this model and besmirch its name”, an anguished Awasthi said.

But if the capitalist model worsens in future, the cooperative model alone would come to the rescue of the people. He hoped that the new government would appreciate the potential of cooperatives and accord them their due place.

Earlier, the Chairman of IFFCO spoke on the achievements of the organization and congratulated Aditya Yadav for winning the ICA seat. Dr G N Saxena introduced the well-known litterateur Shri Nambar Singh.

IFFCO Sahakarita Ratna award was presented to Shri Ravindra Pratap Singh, Cooperator & Social reformer from Chhattisgarh and IFFCO Sahakarita Bandhu award to Shri Keval Krishan Sharma, cooperator from Punjab.

Several eminent cooperators including Bijender Singh, G H Amin, Ashok Dabas, B K Mishra, Prakash Lonare, Dr Dinesh were present on the occasion.