RSS chief highlights cooperative movement's role

"We should see that the last man in our society is free and self-sufficient without being dependent on others. This is the aim of the cooperative movement. The society becomes stronger by this movement," Bhagwat said.

Inaugurating the Shakar Bharati's fourth Cooperative Convention here, he said becoming an influential cooperative movement alone cannot be the aim of the organisation but reaching out to each and every member of the society through personal contact should also be its goals.

Bhagwat said that the workers in cooperatives should not have any "personal ambitions" other than working for the welfare of the society. "Each cooperative should abide by law and also maintain blemishless accounts. To make it a much stronger movement, each co-op should lead by example," he said.

The RSS chief said all humans should achieve collective freedom by being self-sufficient which is possible only by cooperation.

Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, who was also present on the occasion, said the state government has taken measures to aid farming community and milk cooperatives.

As many as 36,000 cooperatives societies are operating in the state employing 15 lakh people, he said.

Shettar also said the government has decided to institute a revolving fund for cooperatives in the state.

Former Union Minister and senior BJP leader H N Ananth Kumar said though the non-cooperation movement was started by Mahatma Gandhi before independence, the Congress governments now continued "non-cooperation" with the people.

Flaying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Finance Minister P Chidamabaram, Kumar said that 30 lakh people in the country were dependent on six lakh cooperatives, but the Centre was bent upon including them under the Direct Tax Code and income tax ambit.