Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 21: Concerned over the alleged use of animal fat in the “prasadam” of the famous Tirupati temple, the Andhra Pradesh government has decided to consult priests and ‘top Hinduism experts’ to decide its next course of action in the ‘adulterated prasadam’ controversy, even as the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) has started moving fast to install its own in-house, hi-tech testing machinery to ensure the quality and purity of the ghee used to make the famous laddoos.
The AP chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu said on Saturday, “We are discussing what to do next and how to go forward with respect to the TTD. After deliberating with pontiffs, priests and Sanatan Dharma (Hinduism) experts, we will decide on how the ‘samprokshana’ (ritualistic sanitisation) should be done.”
The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) supremo’s announcement came days after he made a sensational claim alleging that during the previous government, led by his political rival, YSR Congress Party boss YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, ‘laddoos’ with ‘animal fat’ were offered as ‘prasadam’ at the Sri Venkateswara temple in the state’s Tirupati.
While TTD, the body that runs the temple, has backed the chief minister’s charge, the former chief minister Reddy has firmly dismissed it. He also claimed that ‘many people tried to make better prasadams, but failed.’ “In Ayodhya also, they tried to replicate the Tirumala laddoo but could not. I was told about this by people from there (Ayodhya). The Tirupati laddoo is centuries old,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Gujarat-based dairy giant Amul has lodged a police complaint against the alleged ‘misinformation campaign’ that the adulterated ghee with which the ‘laddoos’ were made, was supplied by it. Amul also clarified that it had never supplied ghee to Tirupati temple. “We also wish to clarify Amul Ghee is made from milk at our certified and state-of-the-art production facilities. Amul Ghee is India’s most trusted ghee brand for more than 50 years and continues to be an integral part of Indian households. This post is being issued to stop the misinformation campaign,” the statement read.
The TTD Executive Officer Shyamala Rao said the in-house, hi-tech testing machinery to ensure the quality and purity of the ghee used to make the famous laddoos would be donated by the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and is expected to be installed by December-January. He said the process for importing the machinery has already begun.
TTD does have its own lab-testing unit but the new equipment will cover several parameters to ensure purity and meet food-safety standards. During the meantime, the TTD would carry out random sampling and testing of ghee and other raw materials used to make the ‘prasadam.’ These will also be tested in the existing TTD laboratory.
“Ghee will first be tested for sensory parameters in the TTD laboratory, which we have on the premises. We will also send samples to external laboratories if the in-house test fails. We will be sending samples randomly from time-to-time to external labs to maintain quality and purity,” Mr Rao said.
The TTD’s Executive Officer also made it clear that while it adopts a thorough and strict vetting process for those supplying ghee to the temple, following the controversy, they would float a new tender based on the recommendations of the expert committee.
With several complaints about the poor quality of the Tirupati laddoos, the ruling TDP, which came to power in June 2024, formed a special committee to investigate the complaints. Dr Surendranath, a former scientist at the National Dairy Research Institute, dairy expert Dr Vijay Bhaskar Reddy, Dr Swarnalatha from Telangana Veterinary University, and Dr Mahadevan from IIM Bangalore were part of the committee. As part of their investigation, they collected samples of ghee, including one from a company called AR Foods, based in Dindigul, Tamil Nadu. AR Foods, which was one of the many bidders, had replaced Karnataka’s KMF after winning the tender during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“How could AR Foods win a tender to supply ghee at Rs 320 per litre when pure ghee actually costs Rs 1,000?” questioned TDP spokesperson Anam Reddy, pointing fingers at the previous Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSRCP government for compromising on the quality of the ‘prasadam’ and hurting the sentiments of millions of devotees of Lord Venkateshwara.
AR Foods, in their defence, stated that they were one of many suppliers and that none of the lab reports directly mentioned their name or said that the three samples were from them. They insisted that the “adulterated” ghee sample could not be from AR Dairy Food Private Limited. However, Rao claimed that the four ghee samples sent to NDDB were indeed from AR Dairy Food, and the samples were taken from four tankers that arrived on July 6 and July 12 this year.
In their media statement, AR Foods had said their ghee passes through rigorous quality control and food safety tests, and they also have certification from the Central government run Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) confirming that there was no adulteration in the samples taken from their consignment.