If you drink goats' milk, you treat it as mother: Bengal BJP leader defends tweet

Kolkata: Vice President of Bengal BJP, Chandra Kumar Bose stood his ground on Saturday after his tweet claiming Mahatma Gandhi used to treat goats as “Mata” (mother) sparked a sharp back and forth with Tripura governor Tathagata Roy on Twitter.

Following Bose’s comment, Roy took to Twitter to write, “Neither Gandhiji nor your grandfather ever said goats were Mata- that's your conclusion.”

The governor, a former Bengal BJP president further asked Bose to not, "peddle such rot."

Bose, who is Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's grandnephew, had this week weighed in on the political row after the increasing incidents of mob killings over suspicion of cow slaughter.

According to him, religion should not be mixed with politics and one must respect all communities, their likes and dislikes and the meat they want to consume.

In an interview with ANI, Bose elaborated, “One has to understand the subtlety of my tweet. What I have mentioned in my tweet is from a chapter of history.”

He further added that the entire nation is shocked to see the kind of violence and lynchings that are taking place across the country and it is the responsibility of political parties and governments is to ensure that law and order is maintained.

" Nehru (Jawahar Lal Nehru) and Mahatma Gandhi when they used to stay in our house, they used to have some specific demands. One such demand was to be given goat's milk. So, my grandfather brought two goats and Gandhiji was served goats milk," Bose said, explaining his tweet.

He further went on to add, “If you attack people for consuming beef then you should also stop consuming goat because Mahatma Gandhi used to drink goat milk. And if you drink goats' milk, you treat goat as your mother. Religion must not be mixed up with politics.”