Two fall ill as Bengal BJP's cow-urine cure creates health hazard

The BJP in West Bengal seems to have launched a parallel coronavirus prevention drive by promoting “cow urine” as an antidote, creating a new health hazard with at least two persons reportedly falling sick after consuming it.

A 42-year-old businessman, Shibu Gorai of Jamda area of Jhargram became ill after consuming cow urine on Tuesday (March 17) night. He was later admitted to Jhargram hospital on Wednesday (March 18).

Gorai said over the telephone that after seeing BJP leaders distributing “cow urine” to fight coronavirus, he bought a bottle of 400 millilitre for ₹250 and consumed two sips last night.

After drinking it, he complained of nausea and vomiting. He is now undergoing treatment at the hospital and his condition has improved.

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Pintu Pramanik, a home guard with the Kolkata traffic police, was rushed to a hospital with similar symptoms of vomiting and nausea on Tuesday morning. He had consumed cow urine at a “gaumata” worship programme organised by a state BJP leader, Narayan Chatterjee in North Kolkata’s Jorabagan area on Monday (March 16).

At the programme, Chatterjee “induced” passersby to consume cow urine, claiming it would protect them from the coronavirus. Based on a complaint lodged by Pramanik after he fell sick, the police filed a case.

Police action, however, failed to deter the party from continuing with its Hindutva push under the garb of hard-selling health benefits of “gaumutra.”

Barely hours after the arrest of Chatterjee, the saffron party’s Raiganj unit in North Dinajpur organised a similar programme to distribute cow urine. “We believe, by worshipping cow and consuming its urine, we can fight against the virus. That’s why we are urging everyone to drink cow urine,” said Arpita Mitra, president of the Raiganj BJP unit and one of the organisers of the programme.

However, Jhargram’s chief medical officer Dr Prakash said the excreta of any animal can be infectious and hence not fit for human consumption.

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The BJP does not seem to be bothered about any such scientific argument. The party’s state unit chief Dilip Ghosh told media that the “health benefits” of cow urine was not unknown to anyone and he himself had consumed it in the past.

Claiming that its benefits were mentioned in the ancient Indian medicinal texts, Ghosh said it was because of its special properties that Hindus from time immemorial considered it “sacred.”

Biologist Dr Swagata Das said ingredients of cow urine are similar to that of a human’s. Consuming it without disinfecting it first could lead to bacterial infections and other health complications, she said, adding that the claim of health benefits of cow urine does not have any scientific basis.

Ghosh, however, even sees a conspiracy in the medical fraternity’s cynicism over the Hindutva brigade’s cow-urine hypothesis. “Doctors, after taking money from the pharmaceutical companies, prescribe only the medicines they have been asked to recommend. Just because doctors are not recommending cow urine, it does not mean it is not useful,” the BJP leader told a local Bengali daily.

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Last year, Ghosh stirred a controversy by claiming that an Indian cow’s milk contained gold.
Ghosh on Monday also lambasted the protocol being followed by the state government to contain the virus and termed it a “hype.”

Ghosh alleged that the state government’s hype over the issue was creating panic among the people.

The state government went into lockdown mode and ordered the closure of all educational institutes till April 15 and asked cinema theatres to remain shut till March 31.

This comes after an 18-year-old student, who returned to Kolkata from UK, tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday (March 17) night. This is the first confirmed case in the state.

So far, around 3.25 lakh people were screened in the state, out of which over 12,000 people were kept under surveillance. Samples of 70 suspected cases were sent for further COVID-19 tests. Out of the 70, only the 18-year-old’s samples tested positive.