What is common between the cow and the sex lives of peahens? A recently retired judge of the Rajasthan High Court, it seems. Readers can be forgiven for thinking that the question and its answer are a mysterious riddle, or even plain nonsense. But that is not quite the case here. The Chinese, evidently cut from a different cloth from their Indian brethren, have inserted the ox, horse, sheep and pig in their zodiac calendar but are markedly indifferent towards the cow. But things have always been different on this side of the border. The cow has been a subject of veneration for Indians, especially among Hindus, from time immemorial. But the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s love for the cow surely surpasses this ancient tradition. Going by the BJP’s antics — they range from the bizarre to the brutal — it looks as if it is the Year of the Cow in India, at least unofficially so. Even the law seems to have been affected by the fervour. Passing an order in response to a public interest litigation that highlighted the death of 6,000 cows in Rajasthan — a BJP-ruled state — Mahesh Chandra Sharma declared, before hanging up his robe, that the cow should be declared India’s national animal.
From here on it gets a bit mysterious — for both ornithologists and those with ordinary faculties. Mr Sharma explained his decision to accord the cow its special status by bringing into focus the sex life of India’s national bird. The peacock’s celibacy, in Mr Sharma’s opinion, is the cause of its exalted status. Peahens, he added, get impregnated by the tears of the peacock. Is Mr Sharma then saying that cows, too, should make the cut because they, like the bird or the yogis, have mastered the art of abstinence? But then the livestock census has indicated that the country’s cow population has registered an increase. Given that Indians love their cows, the animals are unlikely to be driven to tears. Perhaps Mr Sharma had Rajasthan on his mind. Poorly managed gaushalas in a state where the BJP is in power do not go well with the party’s professed passion for bovines. The state unit can take inspiration from Mr Sharma, who, even though he was a student of science, seems to bend the laws of science at will. He has cited ‘research’ to argue that cows, among other things, exhale oxygen; that cow urine destroys germs, and that no less than 33 crore deities reside inside the bovine’s body.
It is possible that Mr Sharma, who retired on the day he passed his order, wants to be remembered. Saying things that are pleasing to the ears of the government — the BJP loves passing off fiction as fact — is certainly one way of being recalled with fondness. Political affection can be beneficial: it has often helped prolong public life. But there is that little problem concerning propriety. Members of the judiciary are expected to be minders of the Constitution and everything it upholds — probity, impartiality, the scientific spirit and so on. It is doubtful whether Mr Sharma’s final order passed the test on all these counts.
