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.”
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