As over 5 lakh people get ready to take an online exam on the "holy cow" on Thursday, 25 February, the University Grants Commission has written to Vice Chancellors of 900 Indian universities to encourage students to participate.
It will be conducted by the Rashtriya Kamdhenu Ayog (RKA), which comes under the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying and was set up in 2019.
Bengal's BJP chief Dilip Ghosh had said, “Indian cows have something special in their humps that turn sunshine into gold, which gives their milk its yellow colour,” NDTV reported.
The study material for the one-hour online examination says that cow dung is used as a protection against radiations in nuclear centres in India and Russia and had protected Bhopal residents from the gas leak too. It further states that Indian cows have a special power to absorb the sun's energy with the help of the solar pulse situated in their humps, which makes Indian cow milk, cow dung, and cow urine nourishing.
Chairman Rashtriya Kamdhenu Ayog Vallabhai Kathiria said, "Nothing unscientific about it. We want to project its importance of the Indian breed of the cow. So, we are holding this exam.”
A professor of physics from the Jadavpur University responded to the the request of UGC asking the university to promote the examination by saying, “Central govt is not giving Rs 60 crore to Jadavpur University for research. What it is trying to do is inject specific ideology into the students.”
Samantak Das from the English department said, "I fear there is a fairly well thought out plan behind this. You are trying to legitimise untruths. I am not even calling them post truths,” NDTV quoted.
(With inputs from NDTV)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)