Cow is cool in Cow Belt, Digvijay goes the whole hog

Congress tries to one-up BJP on gaubhakti, minister says cow's urine part of Chief Minister's diet

Express News Service
Hartosh Singh Bal

Bhopal, January 21: ''A scientist from New Zealand has told me how he, on the basis of Indian scriptures, has established that cow horns filled with cow dung and buried on a certain specified date and then taken out on another specified date serve to fertilise one whole acre without need of any other fertisliser.''
     Digvijay Singh, chief minister of Madhya Pradesh. Bhopal, January 21

Cow is suddenly cool. Struggling to tackle the hardline Hindutva onslaught, Cow Belt's Congressmen, led by Digvijay Singh, are rediscovering the gau mata. So while speaker after speaker at a seminar in Bhopal on Tuesday praised the holy cow, a minister went a step ahead to reiterate his boss's credential as a gaubhakt: He said Digvijay Singh drank cow's urine.

The seminar was organised by the Love 4 Cow Trust - its motto: 'aao gai se pyaar karen - and was funded partly by the state government. Singh said how his government had set up a Gausewa Ayog which ''others should have done.'' ''People who play politics in the name of gau mata did not do so, we did it,'' he said.

But speakers preceding him had tried hard to establish the chief minister's love for cow. Minister for Animal Husbandry Shiv Narayan Meena revealed that Digvijay partakes of gau mutra and went on to suggest that urban intellectuals would be better off keeping cows rather than setting off in the morning to walk their dogs. Chairman of the Gausewa Ayog Mahendra Bam spelt out how under Digvijay ''cow slaughter had been banned. This has resulted in the state being one of the few places where the cattle population is increasing. In 1999 the state had 80 gaushalas. Now the number is 550, the number of cattle in these is up from 8,500 to 1.79 lakh.'' Bam wound up his speech with slogans of 'Jai gaumata ki jai'.

As experts at the 'International Seminar on Cow and Bio-diversity' and the Member of the Planning Commission, Som Pal, dwelt on how cross-breeding with imported high-yield varieties was threatening the diversity of India's own indigenous species, Digvijay revealed that his own knowledge of the cow and its by-products.

''The cow has its own importance for the country. It is different from any animal and we see it as our mata. Which other animal is of use for its milk, urine and dung? There are some qualities which set the cow apart. When it is realised that only the urine of our native cattle has the necessary medicinal properties, it compels even a rational thinker,'' he said.

''This state has initiated a lot of research on cow urine and it now sells for Rs 4 to 5 per litre. A pesticide of gau mutra along with neem has yielded good results. A scientist from New Zealand has told me how he, on the basis of Indian scriptures, has established that cow horns filled with cow dung and buried on a certain specified date and then taken out on another specified date serve to fertilise one whole acre without need of any other fertisliser,'' the chief minister added.

Later, he came back to politics: ''We have reached the stage where dry dairy farming, through the use of non-milch products such as dung and urine, is economically viable and there are no grounds for cow slaughter. Look at Babar's wasiyat to Humayun, it is at the national archives, where he tells his son that to rule India he must stop cowslaughter for the cow is a mother to the Hindus. And people say he demolished a temple to build a masjid. In fact the Quereshi samaj in Bhopal and Indore have called me for functions and pledged on the Koran not to indulge in cow slaughter.''

Cow politics has already become a major issue in the state. Flagging off the Bhartiya Yuva Janta Morcha rally in Ujjain on January 12, Uma Bharti had defined Bhartiyata as Hindutva, which she had said was the ''four Vedas, gaumata, ganagmata and gitamata.''

On the same day, speaking 100 km from Ujjain, Digvijay had pitched in with his crdentials as a gaubhakt. Just a couple of days later, arson and loot took place in Ganjbasoda after an incident of cowslaughter was reported.

Ever since then, the BJP has been attacking Digvijay's record on cow protection. So while vice-patron of the Love 4 Cow Trust S.C. Tripathi, former director general of police, revealed that the invitation to Singh was extended well before recent political occurrences, Digvijay ensured that he was not one to let an opportunity slip.

Deep Focus on banning cow slaughter (Mar 9) reminded me of my visit to my ancestral home in Faridpur district (now Sariadpur) of Bangladesh. Plenty of cow milk and milk products were available here before Partition. Milk would be sold in winter at three paise a seer.

We would buy 'Naria's sandesh', a very famous sweet at 2 paise a pair. I revisited my village during pujas in 1990. All my efforts to buy the sandesh failed. I was told sweets made of milk were available only on advance orders and made from milk powder.

People whose homes I visited also used tins of milk powder, all imported from Australia against aid. During my stay - and I travelled by road and rail - I couldn't see a single cow, except some domestic ones in temples. Can India afford to go the Bangladesh way?

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2003 10:06:18 PM ]

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Wednesday pointed out that most of the states governed by the party have legislations in place against cow slaughter and that the BJP should bring in such a law in Nagaland, where it is a partner in the new government.

Party spokesman Jaipal Reddy explained that the Congress was only opposing the statutory resolution on cow slaughter on procedural grounds in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday because cow slaughter is not a Central subject.

Reddy refused to announce his party's stand on the issue saying that the BJP should first get the proposed Central legislation approved by the NDA partners and then approach the opposition, and not through the media, as it is doing now.

On the controversy over the voters' list in Madhya Pradesh, Reddy said that the list was not even final and that if there was any dereliction of duty on the part of the district collectors, as pointed out by the Election Commission, then the issue should be settled between the EC and the state government. "The chief minister has said that all the facts would be made available to the EC," said Reddy.

PTI[ MONDAY, MARCH 03, 2003 02:15:49 PM ]

NEW DELHI: With 22 states and six union territories having enacted legislations to ban or restrict cow slaughter, the government is examining the issue of imposing the ban throughout the country, the Lok Sabha was informed on Monday.
Replying to a question about the steps government proposed to take to completely ban cow slaughter throughout the country, Agriculture Minister Ajit Singh said the matter was in the state list.

"Even then the Government of India is examining the issue", he said.

Singh said there was "no evidence" however that slaughter of cow and its illegal transportation was on the rise.

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2003 01:19:13 AM ]

LUCKNOW: Suffering from diabetes, cholesterol or high blood pressure? Try cow milk. The conjugated linolic acid (CLA), found specially in the milk of the humped variety, could be just the answer to your problem.

This 'health funda' forms the core of advertising blitzkrieg planned by the UP government for the promotion of cow milk.

And for a refreshing change, emphasis this time is on jacking up the sale charts by using scientific backup rather than giving it a pseudo religious push, as the government officials mull over research papers and medical bulletins to come up with the right sale strategy.

Launched by the Uttar Pradesh Pradeshik Cooperative Dairy Federation (UPPCDF), the ambitious project aims at marketing Parag Go Ras (cow milk) as well as ghee in 14 districts from March.

The UPPCDF had already charted out milk routes, covering Lucknow, Agra, Varansi, Bara Banki, Sultanpur, Aligarh, Mathura, Bulandshahr, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Muzzafarnagar and other areas, said Veena, chief general manager (CGM) of the federation.

Attractive packages are being offered to members of the village dairy cooperative (VDC) which may include grant of loans from DRDA or banks for buying cows, free services of para vets and also free containers.

"Besides making available unadulterated cow milk to consumers, the project will also go a long way in the protection and preservation of cows and its progeny," minister for animal husbandry Laxmikant Bajpai told Times News Network on Thursday. "We would like to sell this concept to health freaks, housewives and hospitals," he added.

The Lucknow Milk Union supplies 250 litre milk to state ayruvedic college."CLA which has anti-cancer properties is only found in well-tended and open grazing cows - a description which fits to our village cows to the T," he claimed.

The milk, said Bajapi, would be available in polypack and be priced at par with buffalo milk (Rs 10 a litre). Moreover, the federation will pay milk sellers a rupee extra on the sale of every litre of cow milk.

After the market in 14 district steadies the government will try to cover the entire state. "We may even earmark eastern and Bundelkhand region under our expansion project," Bajpai added.

This would also strengthe