Elixir of Lies

Hindutva groups turn to cow urine for protection from COVID-19 / Religion

- Ahan Penkar

The gaumutra party was organised by a group known as the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha. The ABHM president, Chakrapani, who has been labelled a “fake baba” by the Akhil Bharatiya Akhada Parishad, led the rituals. Among the attendees was a man in a skull cap who said his name was Hari Shankar Bhutto Khan. He claimed to be related to Pakistan’s Bhutto family and said that he had been raised by a Brahmin couple.

Shortly after noon on 14 March, in a makeshift tent next to a temple on Delhi’s Mandir Marg, a bizarre religious ritual was underway. A man in Hindu religious garb faced a flex banner that carried the image of a demon with the word “Corona” stamped across its chest, as well as photos, taken from tourism websites, of Chinese people eating bees, an octopus, a frog and a lobster, with speech bubbles saying, “Save us Corona!” As he sprinkled generous quantities of gaumutra—cow urine—on the image of the demon, the man chanted, “Corona shant ho jao, shant ho jao corona”—Calm down, corona. One of the assembled priests started distributing earthen cups of gaumutra as prasad, while another showered gulal mixed with gaumutra as “a blessing from god.”