Just before President Donald Trump's visit to India, Swadeshi Jagran Manch, an affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), warned the Indian government about importing dairy products from the United States.

Although no major India-US trade deal was expected during Mr Trump's visit, dairy products are among the goods for which the United States is keen to win access to the Indian market.

Swadeshi Jagran Manch says cattle in the United States are given animal-based feed. So if that milk comes to India, vegetarians will not drink it and it cannot be used in puja (worship) either.

Animal feed experts, however, say that eating animal-based feed does not change the quality of the milk in any way.

Swadeshi Jagran Manch has long argued for encouraging domestic production instead of importing foreign goods.

The organisation's national co-convener, Ashwani Mahajan, told BBC Bangla that if dairy imports from the United States began, it was unclear what the crores of people in India who rear cattle and work in the milk trade would do.

"These are not big corporate organisations like the American companies; they are small traders or farmers. Their interests will be harmed, and the government has been told so," he said.

Mr Mahajan said: "There is another problem with milk in the United States: cows there are fed feed made with meat and blood components. If that milk comes to India, the many people who are vegetarian will be uncomfortable drinking it, and it will hurt their religious feelings. Milk is also used in puja, and that could not be done either."

Feeding meat-based products to animals is illegal in India.

Source: BBC Bangla. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.