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Zoho founder vs Congress over ‘gomutra’ dig at IIT director chosen for Padma Shri
Congress on X reminded of Prof Kamakoti's past remarks that cow urine has "anti-bacterial" and "anti-fungal" properties, and can heal a variety of illnesses
Technology company Zoho's founder Sridhar Vembu reacted sharply to the Congress party's dig at IIT-Madras director V Kamakoti, who has been selected for the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award.
“Professor Kamakoti works in deep tech: micro-processor design. He is the Director of IIT-Madras, the best technological institution in India… He richly deserves the honour,” Vembu posted on X.
The tech businessman was responding to the Congress Kerala unit's apparently sarcastic post: “Congratulations to V Kamakoti on receiving the honour. The nation recognises your bleeding edge research on Cow Urine at IIT Madras, taking Gomutra to world stage.”
With it, the party also shared a video in which Kamakoti said, “The Padma Shri award means only thing to me, that I will put all the best efforts towards ‘Viksit Bharat’,” listing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ‘developed India by 2047’ pitch as his inspiration.
What was the dig about?
The dig reminded of Professor Kamakoti's remarks last year that cow urine has "anti-bacterial" and "anti-fungal" properties, and can heal a variety of illnesses, including IBS, or Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
Kamakoti had claimed later that “top journals in the United States have published scientific evidence” on this. According to report from the time by NDTV, he shared a write-up published in Nature, a respected weekly scientific journal, in June 2021, in which some scientists published the results of "peptide profiling in cow urine".
The authors in that said they had “presented a simple method for the discovery of thousands of endogenous peptides in cow urine that contribute to various bioactivities associated with urine”. "We provided evidence for the peptide-mediated antimicrobial activity against E. coli and S. aureus, but more experiments are needed to validate other predicted bioactivities," they reportedly said.
While Professor Kamakoti had not yet reacted to the Congress's post, within hours Vembu interjected, saying he would continue to defend Kamakoti on scientific grounds.
“Cow dung and cow urine have excellent microbiome that could be valuable for humans,” Vembu argued. He further said, “It is the slavish colonial mindset that thinks these are not scientific propositions worthy of investigation. Some day, when Harvard or MIT publish a study on this, these enslaved minds would worship that as the gospel truth.”
The professor's profile on the IIT-Madras website lists the following as his research interests: “Software aspects of VLSI design, Cluster computing, High-performance computing, Algorithms, Data structures, Computational geometry.”
He was among the 131 Padma awardees named on Republic Day eve.
‘Put your money on it’
Not long after Vembu's post, the party reacted back.
“Research is not about quoting random Western research papers out of context. What is the outcome of all this research on cow dung and urine? And why are we limited only to cow dung? What about the excreta of buffaloes, goats, or even humans?” it posted on X.
It noted that a research project on Panchagavya — a traditional mixture made from cow dung, cow urine, milk, curd, and ghee — for the treatment of cancer was embroiled in a scam.
“Since you (Vembu) are a billionaire who believes in the magical benefits of cow urine, why doesn’t your company invest in proper cow urine and cow dung research? If cow urine can help in healing cancer, that would be one of our greatest contributions to the world. Why don’t you take up this challenge and put the money where your mouth is?” The Kerala Congress handle further posted.
