Himalayan News Service

New Delhi, February 27:

Cow urine for dazzling teeth, glowing skin and a slim body? Not for the queasy but seemingly recommended by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), whose headquarters hosts an outlet for a range of cow product cures.

At a store operating from the BJP’s national headquarters in 11, Ashoka Road, one corner has been devoted to “Goratna Ayurveda medicines” that claim to have indigenous remedies for conditions ranging from diabetes to skin disease, constipation, asthma, pimples and, believe it or not, cancer.

Produced by Ram Chandra Gupta of the Kanpur Gaushala Society, these bottles contain a ‘healthful’ concoction of panchagavya or five cow products — milk, curd, ghee, urine and dung — concurring with the Hindu belief of the cow as a revered giver of life.

“There is cure for most ailments, but people do not realise that,” said Mukesh Bhagat, a BJP functionary who mans the shop and is striving to peddle the latest range of cow-product cosmetics.

“And what is best is that everything is so inexpensive.” The Goratna Sanjivani Ark tonic, made of filtered cow urine, is said to be effective for cancer. And the magic potion is available for just Rs 80 apiece.

Bhagat picked out some of the more popular products — the Goratna Medohari Ark for reducing obesity, Goratna shampoo, tooth powder and soap. Beauty products made from cow dung and urine, for some customers, were a little too tough to stomach.

But the Goratna Kala Tel (balm) for arthritis and joint pains, he says, has recorded brisk sales within the BJP, That, and the chemical-free toilet soap made of the same five miracle ingredients. There are also items of daily use — phenyl, antiseptic liquid, mosquito repellent and ingredients for a Hindu pyre — besides some rather inconceivable ones like aftershave, skin whitener, tooth powder and incense.

One curious browser at the shop wrinkled his nose at the tooth powder but was ready to accept the phenyl.The Kanpur Gaushala Society has been producing the stuff for about seven years in an in-house laboratory,