Hyderabad: The row over laddoos served to devotees at the famed hill-shrine at Tirupati has snowballed into a major political controversy. Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party has claimed animal fat was used for making laddoos during Jagan Mohan Reddy's tenure, a charge that the YSRCP leader has denied. The centre has sought a detailed report over the allegations while the Union food minister has demanded an inquiry.
Around 3 lakh laddoos are made daily in the temple kitchen at Tirupati, using about 15,000 kg ghee. Vast amounts of cashew nuts, raisins, cardamoms, gram flour, and sugar are also used.
The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), which manages the Sri Venkateswara Swami temple in Tirupati, buys the ingredients through e-auction, spending about Rs 500 crore on the procurement. The tendering process had shifted to online in 2022 to reduce human intervention.
The ghee tankers come with certification by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL), which ensures food testing has been done reliably. The consignment is stocked in godowns spread over two acres near Alipiri in Tirupati - for use in prasada as well as for its free food scheme.
The annual procurement includes over 6,100 tonne or 61 lakh kg of ghee, 14 tonnes sugar, 9,200 tonnes of Bengal gram, 4,680 tonnes sona masoori dal, and other ingredients that include raisins, cashews, cardamom and sunflower oil.
Only those agencies registered with the Andhra Pradesh Technological Services are allowed to take part in the e-auction. The contracts are awarded on the basis of various technical parameters and financial factors. AGMARK certification and FSSAI licences are a must some of the ingredients from such agencies.
The consignment that has come under spotlight included 10 tankers of ghee from the Tamil Nadu-based AR Dairy Food Pvt Ltd. Four of their tankers were stopped over suspected adulteration. The samples were sent for testing and the consignment was kept aside.
AR Dairy has said its consignments have cleared multiple lab tests and that they have documents to prove all test reports had cleared the ghee which was sent to the temple. The dairy said it supplied just 0.01 per cent ghee to Tirumala.
Animal Fat In Laddoos?
The Naidu government this week flagged a July 17 dated report that said ghee samples from Tirupati contained fish oil, beef tallow, and lard, a form of pig fat. "Even Tirupati laddoo was made with substandard ingredients. They used animal fat instead of ghee," the Chief Minister told a legislature meeting on Tuesday.
Jagan Mohan Reddy, who lost the state elections this year, hit back at the "false report" and accused Mr Naidu of "using faith for politics". He pointed out that in the past too ghee tankers had been rejected if they did not pass the three mandatory tests they are subjected to before entry.
"It was rejected 14-15 times during Chandrababu Naidu rule and 18 times during the YSRCP rule. Whenever they don't adhere to stringent quality guidelines, they are rejected. Why were samples from a rejected consignment sent for testing?" asked YV Subba Reddy, who was the TTD Chairperson from 2019 to 2023.
The TTD has, meanwhile, backed Chandrababu Naidu's claims. TTD Executive Officer J Shyamala Rao said that suppliers took advantage of the lack of an in-house testing facility and they are in the process of blacklisting the contractor concerned.
The laddoo row has also reached the Supreme Court with a petition being filed alleging violation of Article 25 of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to freedom of religion, including the right to practice.