UDDER MADNESS

India Government Wants to Rebrand Valentine’s Day as ‘Cow Hug Day’

The Hindu nationalist administration said the move would ‘increase individual and collective happiness.’

India’s animal welfare department has asked its citizens to ditch Valentine’s Day in favor of a new holiday embracing traditional Hindu values—“Cow Hug Day.” In a statement, the department on Wednesday argued that “hugging cows will bring emotional richness and increase individual and collective happiness.” Cows are worshiped as holy by devout Hindus, and hard-right Hindu groups have attacked Valentine’s Day in recent years on the grounds that the Western tradition promotes promiscuity. Hindu Nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pushed a Hindu agenda to the exclusion of different religions and beliefs—but the instruction to go out and hug cows on Feb. 14 has been met with widespread ridicule online. Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a political analyst, said the move is “absolutely crazy and defies logic.”