India’s largest milk cooperative and food products marketing entity Amul went the extra mile, with its iconic topical advertisements, to hail Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not signing the RCEP.
According to the coop, junking the treaty has “safe-guarded” the interest of the farm, small industry and dairy sectors.
Amul is known for its witty advertisements on topical subjects which are hits for their concepts and humour- they feature a hand-drawn cartoon of a young Indian girl dressed in a polka-dotted frock with blue hair and a ponytail.
But the ad hailing Prime Minister Modi has not gone down well with Twitterati, with some mocking it for giving him "undue" credit for the decision.
Some others commented that the “Liberal-Secular brigade” will accuse Amul of getting “Modi-fied” no matter what.
Some even reminded how the architect of the largest cooperative, the late Varghese Kurien, had been stripped of his basic facilities by Amul at the behest of Modi, who was Chief Minister of Gujarat at the time.
New Delhi stayed out of the deal as the Trade Grouping did not give any “credible assurances for India with regards market access and non-tariff barriers”. Prime Minister Modi was also under pressure from Bharatiya Janata Party’s ideological ally, and opposition parties in India not to sign the treaty, which would have impacted India’s farm sector and small industries.
After the RCEP summit, India’s Trade Minister Piyush Goyal said, New Delhi will never finalise any trade agreement in a hurry. Goyal told media persons in New Delhi on Tuesday that during future trade negotiations, the focus will be on “India first”.