On February 14, 2019, a convoy of vehicles carrying Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel to Srinagar via National Highway 44 came under a suicide bombing attack.
A 22-year-old Adil Ahmad Dar, a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist from Kakapora in Jammu and Kashmir, rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into a bus carrying the CRPF personnel. 40 of our jawans were martyred.
While India was still mourning the attack, a video of Adil went viral on social media. Recorded prior to the suicide bombing, it gave out a clear message that the Pulwama attack was not just limited to the Indian State but was also an act of vengeance against the Hindu majority.
Pulwama suicide bomber Adil Dar also cracked a Gaumutra joke before blowing himself apart https://t.co/iOkCBrNAiZ pic.twitter.com/ufdTZUSTsY
— Gems of Bollywood बॉलीवुड के रत्न (@GemsOfBollywood) April 1, 2021
In the video, the Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist dehumanised the Hindu community as ‘Hindustan ka Napak mushrikon‘ (impure idol worshippers of India) and ‘Gae ka Peshab Peene Walon’ (cow piss drinkers).
Islamists, who live in their make-believe world of religious supremacy, tend to look down upon adherents of Dharmic Faiths. They believe all Hindus are idolaters, drink the urine of cows and are doomed for Hellfire.
The selective usage of slurs targeting the Hindu community, which considers cows as sacred, made it clear that the Pulwama attack was not just another case of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. It was also on Hindus, the ‘cow piss drinkers’
The normalisation of gaumutra jibes in Indian political discourse
It has been 4 years since that incident and Adil Ahmad Dar’s video resulted in serving more than one purpose. Besides striking terror in Hindus, it gave new ammunition to the Indian liberals to abuse, belittle and dehumanise the community.
In February last year, ‘motormouth’ TMC MP Mahua Moitra made the ‘Gau Mutra’ jibe to mock the Modi government. She had tweeted, “Am speaking this evening in Lok Sabha on President’s Address.”
“Just wanted to give early heads up to @BJP to get the heckler team ready & read up on imaginary points of order. Drink some gau mutra shots too,” Mahua Moitra remarked.
Am speaking this evening in Lok Sabha on President’s Address.
— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) February 3, 2022
Just wanted to give early heads up to @BJP to get heckler team ready & read up on imaginary points of order. Drink some gaumutra shots too.
In May 2021, she stirred controversy by calling India the ‘Susu Potty Republic’. Then too, she had used the cow urine jibe to attack the central government.
In February 2022, DMK leader Dr DNV Senthilkumar S mocked the BJP-ruled States in the North by making the ‘gau mutra’ jibe on the floor of the parliament.
“According to NEP, gross enrollment ratio has to be 50 per cent which Tamil Nadu has achieved long ago. If they want to implement this policy, they should implement the Dravidian model for the development of the country,” he had remarked.
“Why is their policy being thrust upon us? We reject it. If they want to implement it, they should do it in their gau mutra States”, he said in his 6-minute long speech.
* சங்கி நீதிபதி சாமிநாதனை மிதி மிதினு மிதிச்சுருக்கார் 🔥
— Omar Moktar (@lionofdesert_) February 4, 2022
* இரண்டு உயர்நீதிமன்ற நீதிபதிகள் சாதிய மாநாடுகளில் கலந்துக்கிறாங்க…
இது சுமந்த் மனைவியதான சொல்றாரு.@DrSenthil_MDRD is a assert to DMK & TN.#CastiestJudiciary pic.twitter.com/p76LClR0hl
In October 2020, former Hindutva icon Uddhav Thackeray hit a new low after he attacked BJP with crass, Hinduphobic references to Gaumutra (cow urine) and gobar (cow dung). The Shiv Sena supremo made derogatory remarks while addressing the annual Shiv Sena Dusshera Mela.
“Those who cast aspersions on our government, themselves have their mouths filled with cow-dung and Gaumutra. They have been trying to sling cow dung at us, in a desperate hope that it will stick but it did not because we are clean. It is them whose mouth and clothes reek of Gaumutra and cow-dung,” Uddhav Thackeray was heard as saying.
So called Ram Bhakt Uddhav Thackeray taking Gaumutra Jibes at BJP
— BALA (@erbmjha) October 25, 2020
Now wear scull cap, remove your tika & change your saffron flag to Green @OfficeofUT 👌
pic.twitter.com/4o7qIF0nzd
Even as the world was swept by the menace of the coronavirus pandemic in Match 2020, the social media coordinator of the Mahila Congress did not hold back from making a ‘gau mutra’ barb.
While quoting a tweet which said that far-right hucksters were selling fraudulent coronavirus ‘cures’, Lavanya Ballal retweeted it with the caption, “India has Gau Mutra”.
India has Gau mutra 🤪 https://t.co/W8yhzzb2J9
— Lavanya Ballal Jain (@LavanyaBallal) March 14, 2020
Not just politicians, but even liberal journalists have been at the helm of throwing Hinduphobic slurs randomly on the internet to win arguments. In June 2021, NDTV journalist Saurabh Shukla.
He was responding to a tweet posted by journalist Rohini Singh when Shukla made the gau mutra (cow urine) jibe. Journalist Prashant Kumar posted a tweet informing that the Delhi government has permitted the home delivery of liquor in the state.
Rohini Singh congratulated Prashant on his tweet, to which Shukla responded that Prashant Kumar lived in Ghaziabad, where he would be delivered gau mutra at home instead of liquor.
Amit Schandillia, a columnist with Shekhar Gupta’s ThePrint and an author published by Harper Collins Publishers India, also did not feel any compunction in using the same language as used by the Pulwama terrorist Adil Ahmad Dar.
In September last year, the Development Executive of Dharma Productions, Shreemi Verma, came under fire for her tweets mocking Hindus with ‘Gau Mutra’ jibes.
“If Modi does a gau mutra shots party at 8 pm, it’ll be pretty wild,” read one of her tweets. Another tweet stated, “2 parts lime 3 parts tequila and a dash of gau mutra.”
On April 27, 2021, she wrote, “If this situation doesn’t require urgency, then what does? lack of gau mutra? is that when we should panic?” This was the time when India was gripped by the deadly second wave of the Covid pandemic.
Meet Shreemi Verma, writer at Karan Johar’s @DharmaMovies pic.twitter.com/GLE1Kciaiy
— Gems of Bollywood बॉलीवुड के रत्न (@GemsOfBollywood) September 1, 2022
In November 2020, ‘author’ Ravinder Singh was seen using the language of the terrorists while mocking Covid-19 vaccines. Responding to ‘journalist’ Rohini Singh’s tweet on coronavirus vaccines, Ravinder Singh said why would we (Indians) need vaccines when we have Gaumutra (cow urine) as a cure.
Singh was expressing concern about whether state governments in India had reserved their share of vaccines when countries around the world were doing so.
‘Raksha Bandhan’ movie writer Kanika Dhillon was also found invoking ‘Gau mata’ in multiple tweets to take potshots at the ruling dispensation at the Centre.
In April 2021, she had tweeted, “Dying in the parking lot after waiting for a hospital bed…Yeh aache din hai! India super power hai! Aur gau mata ka mutra peene see Covid chala jayega (These are the good days…India is a superpower. And drinking cow’s urine will cure Covid-19).”
The disparaging reference to ‘cow piss’ has been made prior to real-life acts of violence and harassment against Hindus in the United Kingdom and the United States. Even Rishi Sunak, the British Prime Minister, was demonised with the Hinduphobic slur for doing Gau Puja and visiting temple.
The ‘Gau Mutra‘ jibes are now a regular phenomenon in the Indian social media space. The Hindu community has to brave the casual, dehumanising slur not just from anonymous trolls but prominent politicians and public figures who have no qualms in using the language of an Islamic terrorist.
Needless to say, the Indian liberals have managed to get away with little to no consequences. ‘Gau Mutra /Gae ka peshab‘, a term once used to orchestrate an act of terror by the Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist, is normalised as a form of speech and expression.
