Four months before the Karnataka Assembly elections, Congress leader DK Shivakumar had promised to “clean” the state’s Assembly building with cow urine after coming to power.
“I have also asked for cow urine. We will clean with that and will keep Lord Ganesh and worship,” said Shivakumar at the time.
On Monday, recently-elected Deputy Chief Minister Shivakumar came through on his promise. Congress party workers cleansed the Assembly building in Bengaluru with cow urine to celebrate the end of the “corrupt BJP rule”.
After a landslide victory in the Karnataka polls, the Congress seems to be giving the BJP a taste of its own medicine. Practising what has been largely preached by BJP, the Congress said the Assembly had been “polluted” by the BJP and required “purification”. Several BJP leaders in the past have recommended the ‘holy’ cow urine as the ultimate purifier.
The cow as a symbol of political identity for Hindus has been there since at least the 19th century when the Arya Samaj started their cow protection initiatives. Cow politics intensified after the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) came to power. The Atal Bihari Vajpayee government set up the National Commission on Cattle in 2001, which presented its report a year later. The 1,400-page-long report made several recommendations including the prohibition of cow slaughter, a ban on the export of beef and veal, and encouraging the use of cow dung and cow urine in agriculture.
In this context, Outlook looks back at its magazine issue titled ‘Cow Prescription’ in January 2023 to understand the creation of the myth of the holy cow. The issue explores the many lies and half-truths around it, and in recent times, the political discourse that the animal finds itself in.
Read the February 6, 2023 issue of Outlook here.
