For decades, the laddu served as prasad from the iconic Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam presented devotees with only one problem — that it was rich in ghee and high in sugar. In the last two days, other aspects of the laddu have assumed dangerous proportions that threaten to disrupt communal peace and order in the country. Reports emerged that a testing lab had found the presence of “beef tallow”, “lard” relating to pig fat, and “fish oil” in the ghee used to prepare the laddus. Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu alleged that ghee contaminated by “animal fat” had been used to make the laddu during his predecessor Jagan Mohan Reddy’s tenure but there is lack of clarity on what Reddy’s role was in the alleged contamination.
Expectedly, a massive row has erupted not only in AP or among the devotees of Lord Balaji but across the country as Hindu groups called for “hanging the guilty” and union health minister JP Nadda sought a full report on the issue. The temple management claimed that its ghee suppliers might have taken advantage of the lack of in-house adulteration testing facility but did not come clean on who they might be and if they had a connection to Reddy. As the outrage gathered momentum, the fire was further fuelled by fanciful claims running viral on social media. The politico-religious connection was inescapable; Naidu was cornering his arch rival Reddy who happens to be a Christian. All said, this became a convenient issue for the Hindu right wing to whip up communal passions and divert public discourse from a number of other pressing issues.
The role of the central government, at this sensitive juncture, should have been to douse the flames; not fan them further by allowing innuendos and conjectures to fly thick and fast. The lab called the Centre for Analysis and Learning in Livestock and Food (CALF) of the National Dairy Development Board had issued an important caveat with its report — that there can be chances of a false positive result in cases of overfeeding of cows with feeds rich in vegetable oils or milk technologically treated and so on. But this barely landed on the public consciousness given the heightened emotions. There are uncomfortable questions such as why a lab in Gujarat ran the tests when Hyderabad has venerated labs, was this regular testing or did someone complain, who complained and why. If the ghee used to prepare the prasad was, indeed, contaminated with “animal fat” then it is a grave matter for the temple management to address and restore the sanctity of the prasad. The government’s responsibility is to maintain peace and order.
