As soon as his rival’s nomination was rejected and it became obvious that he is now the Director on the Board of one of the most powerful cooperatives not only in India but also in the world, Ovr Ramachandran phoned Indian Cooperative. It was late evening Wednesday. His voice was emotionally choked. He was unable to find words to express his feelings and what we could understand was that he seemed to suggest that it was due to Indian Cooperative that this day has come in his life.
His emotional reactions led us down memory lane. It was in 2014, five years ago that the Indian Cooperative desk received a mail from one Ramachandran from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. While surfing sites he had come across Indian Cooperative and saw news related to IFFCO elections. His idea to contest the co-op election began from here.
Always prompt in replying to readers’ queries, we wrote him back giving details of the concerned persons at IFFCO who could be of help.
It was the era of formidable Dr G N Saxena. Dr U S Awasthi the current MD was the boss of the show and was ever eager to encourage participation of youth in the cooperative movement. The duo of Awasthi and Saxena helped him fulfill his ambition and lo and he hold he became an RGB member in 2014.
To encourage him further IFFCO MD Dr Awasthi put him in one of the committees formed to formulate responses to natural calamities. Ramachandran had been active during several such crises all these five years, including the earthqwake in Nepal.
“Today I am here because of media in general and Indian Cooperative in particular. Indian Cooperative disseminates cooperative news in every nook and corner of the country and helps young people interested in the co-op model to try their luck”, Ramachandran said. “I am an Indian Cooperative gift to the IFFCO Board”, he said in an emotionally choked voice.
Impressed by Ramachandran’s success, the current Chief Election Officer Tarun Bharagava also lost no time informing us as soon as the list was past scrutiny. “Your candidate has won”, said Bhargava almost celebrating the power of media in the cooperative movement.