Article "What do Hindu Nationalists Smell Like?" March 01, 2005
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". But what business does the BJP political party have in selling cow pee?
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."
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The article first appeared on ABC Online website:
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hindu custom of drinking ones own pee.
