The Miss Kohima 2019 contest held on October 5 has become the talking point on social media after the video of a contestant answering a question on Prime Minister Narendra Modi emerged. One of the contestants, 18-year-old Vikuonuo Sachu, was asked what would she say if PM Modi invited her for dinner. In the video, Sachu can be seen saying that she would ask Modi to focus more on women instead of cows.

“If I were invited to have a chat with the Prime Minister of India, I would tell him to focus more on women instead of cows,” she said. Her response received a thunderous applause from the audience.

Khrienuo Liezietsu, 23-year-old, was crowned Miss Kohima at the beauty pageant held in the state capital Kohima, reported the Nagaland Post. Sachu’s efforts, including her reply on PM Modi, earned her the second runner-up spot.

Video of the 18-year-old Sachu was widely circulated on social media with a number of users praising the young girl for her courage and wit.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in its first term from 2014-2019 went down hard on cow slaughter and beef eating. Cow protection has been an important component of the saffron party’s ideology. The BJP-led government imposed a ban on abattoirs and tanneries, while a number of its leaders tried to demonise beef-eating. But the party seems to have softened its stance on the issue, especially in northeast. Gau raksha (cow protection) found no mention in the party’s manifesto released ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in June this year.

Manipur chief minister and senior BJP leader Biren Singh had said that the party understands that beef is very important in the region and does not plan to dictate what people eat. The move to not go after beef seems to have gone down well with the voters as the party registered a clean sweep in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur.