‘Colonial mindset’: Padma Shri row over cow dung, urine remarks; Sridhar Vembu backs IIT Madras director

NEW DELHI: The Kerala unit of Congress is again at the centre of a controversy after its "cow urine research" remarks on Padma Shri winner IIT Madras director V Kamakoti. The comments received a sharp retort from Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu who came out in defence of Kamakoti.The Kerala Congress, in a post on X, congratulated Kamakoti on the civilian honour while taking a dig at his work, saying, “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.”Reacting on January 26, Vembu highlighted Kamakoti’s academic credentials and role in national service. “Professor Kamakoti works in deep tech: micro-processor design. He is the Director of IIT-Madras, the best technological institution in India. He serves in the NSAB. He richly deserves the honour,” he wrote on X. Defending the scientific validity of studying traditional substances, Vembu said, “I have defended him on scientific grounds and I will do so again: cow dung and cow urine have excellent microbiome that could be valuable for humans. 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.”Kamakoti, who is among this year’s Padma Shri awardees, earlier described the honour as a collective achievement. In a video shared on January 25, he said, “The Padma Shri award means only thing to me, that I will put all the best efforts towards Viksit Bharat @ 2047, this award is not possible as an individual, it's a collective effort, I dedicate this award to all who contributed... It is because of them I am getting this award.”