{"id":35823,"date":"2023-02-10T18:14:28","date_gmt":"2023-02-11T01:14:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/india-withdraws-appeal-to-hug-cows-on-valentines-day\/"},"modified":"2023-02-11T01:14:28","modified_gmt":"2023-02-11T01:14:28","slug":"india-withdraws-appeal-to-hug-cows-on-valentines-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/india-withdraws-appeal-to-hug-cows-on-valentines-day\/","title":{"rendered":"India withdraws appeal to hug cows on Valentine\u2019s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A
A woman carries a calf during the inauguration of Jeeyar Swami Dhyan Foundation Gaushala, a cow shelter, on the outskirts of Hyderabad, India, Nov. 6, 2021. India\u2019s government on Friday withdrew its appeal to citizens to mark Valentine\u2019s Day next week not as a celebration of romance but as \u201cCow Hug Day\u201d to better promote Hindu values. (The Associated Press)<\/span>Mahesh Kumar A<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

NEW DELHI \u2013 India\u2019s government on Friday withdrew its appeal to citizens to mark Valentine\u2019s Day next week not as a celebration of romance but as \u201cCow Hug Day\u201d to better promote Hindu values.<\/p>\n

The appeal had attracted widespread criticism from political rivals and on social media.<\/p>\n

A terse statement issued by the government-run Animal Welfare Board of India said the appeal issued Wednesday \u201cstands withdrawn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a political analyst, said the call to hug cows had been \u201cabsolutely crazy, defying logic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision to withdraw the government appeal was to prevent the politics of Hindutva (Hindu nationalism) from being ridiculed in the face of severe criticism from all quarters,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Young, educated Indians typically spend Valentine\u2019s Day crowding parks and restaurants, exchanging gifts and holding parties.<\/p>\n

The Animal Welfare Board had said Wednesday that \u201chugging cows will bring emotional richness and increase individual and collective happiness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Devout Hindus, who worship cows as holy, say the Western holiday goes against traditional Indian values.<\/p>\n

In recent years, Hindu hard-liners have raided shops selling Valentine\u2019s Day items, burned cards and gifts, and chased hand-holding couples out of restaurants and parks, insisting that the day promotes promiscuity. Hindu nationalist groups such as Shiv Sena and Bajrang Dal say such raids help reassert a Hindu identity.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s government has been pushing a Hindu agenda, seeking the religion\u2019s supremacy in a secular nation known for its diversity. Hindus comprise nearly 80% of the nearly 1.4 billion people. Muslims account for 14%, while Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains account for most of the remaining 6%.<\/p>\n

The cow has long been embedded in the Hindu psyche and is deeply respected by many, much like one\u2019s mother. Most states in India have banned cow slaughter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Political rivals criticized idea on social media<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35824,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-35823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35823"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=35823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}