Narendra Modi would be horrified to learn the Rashtrapatiji once confessed to eating beef. Mohan Bhagwat, who inaugurated the recent Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP)sammelan in Kolkata with puja to the statue of a cow, would certainly be horrified if Modi isn't.
But Pranab Mukherjee didn't really do anything so remarkable. He only pretended to, which Sangh Parivar worthies would consider bad enough. As recounted in Mukherjee's memoirs, The Dramatic Decade: The Indira Gandhi Years, it was 1943 with his father was in the thick of the nationalist movement when the police turned up at their house one day to seize all they owned. Warned in advance, they had removed their papers, cattle and grain to other houses.
To quote Mukherjee, "Not finding much to confiscate, a sub-inspector in the police party asked me, 'You used to have cows at home, I've seen them. Where have they gone now?' Straight-faced, I replied, 'Cows? We ate them.' The sub-inspector was astounded. 'What are you saying? You are Hindus and you ate your cows?'" Eight-year-old Pranab was already a consummate politician. "Actually, Father has been in jail for a long time" he said glibly. "So we sold the cows for some money to feed ourselves."
Believing India is a "Hindu Rashtra" (since he's ignorant of the Constitution), Bhagwat would want to know who the cows had been sold to. So would Ashok Singhal of "ghar wapsi" notoriety and the VHP's international working president (presumably there's also a national non-working president) Pravin Togadia. They would suspect a Muslim buyer's culinary habits like many Hindu landlords who won't have even Westernised Muslim corporate executives as tenants.