Bharatiya Janata Party’s West Bengal unit chief Dilip Ghosh on Monday said that “intellectuals who eat beef should eat dog meat” as well since it was going to have the same effect on their health, News18 reported.

“There are people who belong to the educated society and eat beef on roadside,” he said at an event in Burdwan district. “Why cow? I would like to ask them to eat dog meat also. It is good for health. Eat other animals’ meat also. Who is stopping you? But eat at your home. Cow is our mother and we see cow killing as anti-social. There are people who keep foreign dogs at home and even clean their excreta. This is maha aparadh [grave sin].”

Ghosh went on to claim that cow’s milk contained gold and that is where it gets its colour from. “Indian breed of cows has a special characteristic, there is gold mixed in its milk, and that is why [the] colour of their milk is slightly yellow,” he said, according to ANI. “Cow’s navel helps in producing gold with [the] help of sunshine.”

The BJP leader also drew parallels between “desi [domestic]” and “videshi [foreign]” cows. He claimed that only Indian cows were “our mother” and not those in other countries. “There are people who brought videshi wives and they are now in trouble.”

Ghosh is known for making comments that stir up controversies. In August, he had advised party workers to beat up Trinamool Congress members and the police. He had also said that the consequences of their actions would be “managed”. In June last year, the state police had filed a case against the BJP state unit chief and three others for threatening Trinamool Congress leaders in the state with violence. He had then said: “Every bullet will be made to count.”

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