Vigyan Bhawan wore a festive look on Thursday as cooperators-big or small lined up to hear Prime Minister speak on cooperatives. This was in a way their first interaction with Narendra Modi who did not disappoint them as he said co-operative courses the veins of this country.
If IFFCO Managing Director Dr U S Awasthi was seen with his team comprising of Directors R P Singh and A K Singh, NCUI President Chandra Pal Singh was sighted circulating around with Sunil Singh, Dileep Sanghani and GH Amin.
Cooperators of different folds were seen in the Hall of Vigyan Bhawan along with their teams. If Fishcopfed
Chairman T Prasad Dora was seen with B K Mishra, Sahakar Bharati leaders Satish Marathe was with Vijay Dewangan and Uday Joshi.
In the unreserved seats there was a scramble for seats as delegates coming from different states wanted to occupy the prime positions. There was a minor ruckus created by delegates of Telangana for seats but it was quickly resolved by the volunteers of Sahakar Bharati.
Talking about the mammoth gathering, one of the senior cooperators said despite the best of their efforts 
cooperators do not get the legitimacy they deserve. “Because of a few rotten fish the entire fraternity earns bad publicity; they have come to seek respect from the top leadership”, he added.
The words of Prime Minister on the necessity of having the co-op model in the country
for the uplift of downtrodden sounded like music to the ears of cooperators.
Several cooperators had approached Indian Cooperative during demonetization for a word of assurance from the govt when the media tried to make cooperative a villain of the piece. Despite dedicating their life to the cooperative causes, some of the leaders have failed to gain the respect they deserve, Indian Cooperative has learnt.
