India’s “milkman” Verghese Kurien’s daughter Nirmala Kurien on Monday came forward to defend her late father, days after Gujarat BJP leader accused the Amul co-founder of funding religious conversions with Amul’s profits. On November 24, Dileep Sanghani, a senior Bharatiya Janata Party minister from Gujarat had attacked Kurien, the father of India’s white revolution, and accused him of donating a part of Amul dairy’s profit money to Christian missionaries for religious conversions. Nirmala Kurien said that such statements should be ignored and focus should be given to the work that has been done by Verghese Kurien in building institutions that in turn ushered India’s White Revolution.

She added that her father who was born on November 26, 1921, was an atheist and (despite being a Christian) was cremated as per his wishes, according to PTI. She further said that just like her father, her mother was also cremated. Verghese Kurien passed away on September 9, 2012.

Also read| BJP leader claims Verghese Kurien used Amul money to fund conversions; Congress calls it bogus statement

Nirmala Kurien’s defence of her father came during an address at the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). “We should also focus on things like the change he made in the life of cattle rearing farmers,” she said. “Lal Bahadur Shastri, who was then Prime Minister, had requested my father to replicate the success of the ‘Amul model’ in the country. He undertook Operation Flood which took India from a milk-deficient country to the world’s largest milk producer.”

She said her father believed that India would one day be among the most powerful nations but he was also worried that 70 per cent of India’s population comprises mostly small and marginal farmers and labourers. Nirmala Kurien added, “He wished that they are given more opportunity to earn so that the gap between the haves and have-nots reduces.”

Senior Gujarat BJP leader Dileep Sanghani while addressing a gathering in Amreli town on November 24 had alleged that Verghese Kurien used to donate a part of his ‘Amul’ dairy profit money to Christian missionaries for religious conversions. He added that Kurien became more “popular” than the founder of the Anand Milk Producers Union Limited (AMPUL) or “Amul”, “despite being only an employee,” according to PTI.