Kumaraswamy moves into CM’s official residence with cows in toe

When H D Kumaraswamy moved into the newly renovated official residence of the Chief Minister of Karnataka in Bangalore earlier this week, three cows, a bull and two calves followed him, arousing the curiosity of the officials and the general public.

But, the Chief Minister told reporters during the house-warming ceremony that the bovines were a gift from the pontiff of a religious institution in Karnataka’s Shimoga district and he had promised to keep the cows with him and rear them.

One of the cows named Nandini, which will stay in the Chief Minister’s official residence, belongs to the Gir breed, known for its high milk-yield. “I come from an agriculture background and I am comfortable with a cow-shed in the backyard”, Kumaraswamy told reporters.

But, few people knew that the Chief Minister was particular on building a cow-shed in his backyard of his official residence when the renovation of was going on. The cow-shed in the “Vastu-compliant” official residence of the Chief Minister is big enough to accommodate more than a dozen cows.

Kumaraswamy was not just following in the footsteps of former Deputy Prime Minister of India Devi Lal and former Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav, both of whom reared cows in their residences. He was continuing with the tradition of his father H D Deve Gowda, who kept cows in the same residence when he was the Chief Minister of Karnataka from 1994-96.

However, Deve Gowda’s successors – J H Patel, S M Krishna and Dharam Singh – did not have such interest in rearing cattle. They had got the cow-shed demolished, built during Gowda’s tenure.