There is less than a fortnight still to go until the Inamdar Centenary but Ministers and officials are clueless about Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing cooperators on the occasion. The programme is slated for September 21-the day the legendary cooperator was born.
Hoping that since Modi regards late Inamdar as his mentor, he would take a positive decision, Agriculture Ministry had booked Vigyan Bhawan-a venue that suits the Prime Minister of the country. It would perhaps be the first time in living memory that a cooperative function is being held at the prestigious venue. Efforts by co-op bodies to book Vigyan Bhawan in the past were invariably greeted with sneer.
This time more than a thousand cooperators from states to metropolis have been invited to learn about a man who founded Sahakar Bharati and coined the famous quote “bina sansakar nahi sahakar” (cooperation is not possible without moral integrity).
Majority of those co-ops which have been invited are multi state co-operatives active both at state and central level. ”Since the capacity of Vigyan Bhawan is limited, we cannot invite all”, said one of the coordinators.
It is primarily a Ministry’s function and Mrs Upama Srivastava, Additional Secretary is overseeing the preparations
Besides Prime Minister Narednra Modi, organizers expect at least 3-4 ministers to be present on the occasion. These include Radha Mohan Singh, Suresh Prabhu and Nitin Gadkari. Likely speakers in the function include a representative from Sahakar Bharati, Radha Mohan Singh, NCUI President besides the Prime Minister.
Two books written by NCUI are also to be released on the occasion- one on the cooperative movement and second one in Hindi on Late Laxmanrao Inamdar. “We have submitted the books to the Ministry and after getting their feed-back, these books would be printed on time”, said NCUI sources.