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Alongside
life-size posters of Hindu nationalist leaders,
Indian political activists can now buy lotions,
potions and pills to cure anything from cancer to
hysteria to piles - all made from cow urine or
dung.
A
new goratna (cow products) stall at the Bharatiya
Janata Party's (BJP) souvenir shop is rapidly
outselling dry political tracts, badges, flags and
saffron-and-green plastic wall clocks with the
face of former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.
"You won't believe how quickly some of the
products sold out," Manoj Kumar, who runs the
souvenir shop along with his brother, Sanjeev,
said. "The constipation medicine is a hot
seller." But the biggest seller is a
"multi-utility pill" that claims to cure
anything from diabetes to piles to "ladies'
diseases". "It's a miraculous cure"
the container declares. A month's supply costs a
little over $US1. Another cure for all is
Sanjivani Ark, a liquid medicine that battles
cancer, hysteria and irregular periods among other
things.
In
addition to medicines, the goratna products range
from cow dung toothpaste, to detergents, a
skin-whitening cream, baldness and obesity cures,
soap and a cow urine "antiseptic
aftershave". BJP spokesman Siddarth Singh
says the stall aims to promote village industry,
one of the biggest employers in India. "If
you go back in the history of India, this belongs
to our culture," he said. "There's no
commercial value to us. Village industry in this
country needs to be promoted."
The
use of cow products in India is centuries old. The
five key products - butter, milk, curd, urine and
dung - are collectively known as panchgavya and
are an important part of ayurvedic medicine. The
cow is worshipped by Hindus, who make up some 82
per cent of India's population. Cow slaughter is
banned in most parts of the country. The goratna
products, made by a cooperative in the northern
"cow-belt" state of Uttar Pradesh, are
rapidly gaining in popularity. "Once they use
it, they are coming back and they are bringing
their friends and their family and their
neighbours back with them," Mr Kumar said. Mr
Singh already uses the detergent and is thinking
of experimenting further. "I'm tempted to try
something for the hair - let's hope," he
grins, running his fingers through his thinning
crop.
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