The politics of purity
The Tirupati laddoo controversy reflects the worrying trend of using even prasad for divisive ends
by Amarnath K. Menon · India TodayISSUE DATE: Oct 14, 2024
The Sri Venkateswara temple at Tirumala in Andhra Pradesh is the holiest of holy shrines for a vast number of Hindus. And almost as famous as Lord Balaji, as the resident deity is popularly known, is the temple prasad, the ‘Tirupati laddoo’. Legend has it that one of the earliest forms of the prasad was documented way back in 1715. Today, so coveted is the sweet offering that the temple produces some 300,000 daily, contributing Rs 500 crore to the annual kitty of the world’s richest Hindu shrine.
Rice, chickpea flour, cashew, cardamom, raisins, sugar candy and ‘pure cow’s ghee’âæthese are some of the 10-odd ingredients used to make the laddoo. But it’s the last mentioned item that has now created a huge controversy. On September 18, Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu alleged that the ghee used to prepare the Tirupati laddoo prasadam during his predecessor Jagan Mohan Reddy’s time had traces of “animal fat” in it.
All hell broke loose soon after, with other political parties, including allies of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the state—the Jana Sena Party (JSP) and the BJP—joining the chorus to accuse the previous Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) government of negligence. Jagan hit back, calling the allegations “malicious”, and castigating Naidu for insinuating that his Christian faith was somehow linked to the alleged wrongdoings at the temple.
THE SUPREME INTERVENTION
The incident soon seeped into the national discourse, with #tirupatiladdoo trending on social media and right-wing Hindutva organisations raising the bogey of faith being under attack yet again. Most importantly, it set off a chain reaction among many of the big temples across India. From the new Ram temple in Ayodhya to the Bankey Bihari temple in Vrindavan to the Jagannath shrine in Puri to Trimbakeshwar in Nashik, samples of the temple prasad were being sent to labs to test their ingredients.
It was left to the Supreme Court to bring a modicum of sanity into the proceedings. On September 30, responding to a volley of petitions, the apex court took Naidu to task, telling him categorically to keep the “gods away from politics”. It also chastised him for making statements without proof and asked why he went public with the animal fat allegations when the state police’s special investigation team (SIT) probe ordered by his government was still pending.
The bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and K.V. Viswanathan said that “when the investigation is under process, it was not appropriate on the part of a high constitutional functionary [Naidu] to go public and make a statement which can affect the sentiments of crores of people across the world”. The court also raised concerns about the impression being created that adulterated ghee was used to make the laddoos, when it was clear that the test results from July—which formed the basis for Naidu’s comments—were from already rejected consignments of ghee.
A NEW PURIFICATION MOVEMENT
Animal fat has been a sensitive issue in India historically—just the rumour of cartridges being greased with lard (pork fat) and tallow (bovine fat) was enough to spark off a mutiny of the Indian sepoys in 1857. Striking a note of caution, political commentator K. Nageshwar says: “While the political aspects are important, we must also address the systemic failure at play. This issue goes beyond politics and impacts society as a whole. This isn’t just a case of adulteration like, say, in the hotel industry...it involves religious sensitivities and if people believe it, the consequences could lead to severe unrest.”
Naidu alleging ‘animal fat’ adulteration in the Tirupati laddoo is part of a wider trend across the country to put a religious imprimatur on objects and places in the name of ensuring their purity. At the Trimbakeshwar temple near Nashik, home to one of the 12 hallowed jyotirlinga Shiva shrines in the country, a Hindu group has started issuing ‘Aum certificates’ to those selling religious material outside the temple (see Ringing the Division Bell). Implicit in it is the insinuation that Muslim sellers of such puja items deliberately defile them. Though secular forces have raised objections, the Aum Pratisthan’s project continues apace and is gearing up to go national.
Meanwhile, in UP, the Yogi Adityanath government stirred up a controversy in July when it directed shopkeepers selling food along the route of the Kanwar Yatra to display their names (and thereby their religion) outside their establishments. It earned a rebuke and a stay from the Supreme Court. But that hasn’t stopped the Yogi regime from reviving a state-level drive on a similar directive issued in September (see Proof of Credentials).
The politics of purity has struck Congress-ruled states as well. In the last week of September, Himachal Pradesh minister Vikramaditya Singh stunned his Congress colleagues by posting a “UP-like” announcement on social media, making it mandatory for vendors and restaurant owners to display their names on their establishment. Vikramaditya was pulled up by the state leadership and even had to come to New Delhi to explain the situation to the party leadership.
THE POLITICS OF PRASAD
As for the Tirupati laddoo, while neither the RSS nor its affiliates such as the Bajrang Dal and the VHP have blown up the issue too much presently, it’s likely a tactical wait: they are pushing the Naidu government to hand over the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation and took out protests in various districts across the country. Meanwhile, refuting the accusations against him, Jagan declared he would visit Tirumala on September 28 “to atone for the sins of Naidu” in an attempt to regain some political mileage. But after an emotionally charged right-wing campaign on social media demanded that the former CM sign a declaration about his “faith in Lord Venkateswara” if he wanted darshan, Jagan, who is a Christian, cancelled the trip. (Since 1990, such a ‘declaration of faith’ has been mandatory for non-Hindus visiting the shrine.)
Even during its poll campaign in May, the TDP would rake up Jagan’s faith, stoking Hindu emotions by claiming Christians were favoured over others under YSRCP rule. Naidu has also raised charges of forced conversions in the past, as has the state BJP. Visiting the 400-year-old Ramatheertham temple in 2021, where miscreants had desecrated a Ram idol, Naidu had alleged that it was the “127th attack on a Hindu temple” since the YSRCP took charge in 2019. Later, at a party meeting, he had declared: “Venkateswara Swamy is my dear godâæif you win the election, you’ll go to Jerusalem, but when I win, I’ll go to Venkateswara Swamy. You can keep the Bible by your side, there’s nothing wrong with that, but if there are attacks on Hindu temples, we won’t sit idle.”
Meanwhile, the current deputy CM, actor and JSP chief, Pawan ‘Power Star’ Kalyan, also waded energetically into the controversy. Kalyan declared he would do prayaschitta deeksha (penance) for the last government’s sins at the Sri Dasavatara Venkateswara Swamy temple in Namburu, Guntur district. That concluded with him trekking barefoot up the Seven Hills in Tirumala alongside ordinary pilgrims on the night of October 1 to pray to Lord Venkateswara. Kalyan has also taken it upon himself to play custodian of the sanatana dharma, going so far as to tick off public figures who have spoken lightly about the laddoo episode.
ADDING FAT TO THE FIRE
The laddoo row may have sprung from political rivalries in Andhra Pradesh, but the controversy was sparked by a report of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) which suggests—with disclaimers—adulteration in the ghee and the possible presence of animal fat. The report was prepared by CALF (Centre of Analysis and Learning in Livestock and Food), a fully-owned subsidiary of the NDDB, which itself works under the central government’s ministry of fisheries, animal husbandry and dairying. Officials at CALF refused to elaborate on the report, but sources claimed it did not specifically state that the adulterated ghee contained fish oil, lard or beef tallow. The report, a copy of which was accessed by INDIA TODAY, states that “the S-value (a parameter used to detect foreign fats in milk or, in this case, ghee) of all equation for sample... are falling out of the range as prescribed by method. If any S-value falls outside the corresponding limits, consider the sample to contain a foreign fat”.
The report lists several ingredients which could qualify as adulterants. This list of ‘foreign fats’ includes rapeseed, linseed, maize germ, wheat germ, soyabean, sunflower, olive, cottonseed, fish oil, coconut and palm kernel fat, palm oil and, only towards the end, beef tallow and lard. “What the report confirms is that the ghee sample was adulteratedâæit does not conclusively establish the presence of these ingredients,” according to a source.
This is also perhaps why, two days after Naidu’s claim, the executive officer of the TTD (Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams) which manages the temple, J. Shyamala Rao, a senior IAS officer who was among the earliest appointees of the TDP government, contradicted the claim of the ghee being adulterated with animal fat. But one of the things Rao red-flagged was that the TTD had been sourcing ghee for prices ranging from Rs 320-411 a kilo when the market price was around Rs 700, so its quality had to be suspect.
While there have been adulteration cases in the past—Jagan Reddy cites figures to say 14 tankers were rejected during the earlier TDP regime (2014-19) and 18 during his term (2019-24)—Naidu’s claim about animal fat was unprecedented and had shocked temple officials. In fact, TTD authorities had rejected four tankers of ghee provided by one of the suppliers, AR Dairy Foods Private Ltd, Dindigul, Tamil Nadu, just recently in July (the other ghee suppliers now are Premier Agri Foods, Kriparam Dairy, Vaishnavi, Sri Parag Milk, Alpha Diary and the Karnataka Milk Federation who makes Nandini brand ghee). Incidentally, the show cause notice now issued to AR Dairy only alleges adulteration with plant-based oils, citing the presence of a plant sterol, β-sitosterol, and makes no mention of any animal fats in its ghee consignment.
TWEAK IN THE TENDER
TTD sources say that the temple authorities are very particular about quality, and source ghee and the other materials used to make laddoos through e-tenders. Officials claim they have scarcely veered away from tradition. Even today, Tirupati laddoos are made in the temple kitchen, called ‘potu’, and located in the inner tier of the temple, on the left side of the sanctum sanctorum. The raw materials are transported to the kitchen on conveyor belts. The laddoos are prepared as per “dittam” (proportion), with a list of ingredients mentioned in the Agama shastras (the manuals of worship laid down for temple buildings and rituals). At present, some 300,000 laddoos are prepared every day, with some 600 people engaged in the task.
Others say the genesis of the controversy perhaps lay in the tweaking of the tendering process that prescribes vendor verification norms by the TTD Board in December 2019 and February 2020 when Y.V. Subba Reddy, Rajya Sabha member and Jagan’s maternal uncle, was the chairperson. Those changes, apparently made so as to welcome more bidders to the tendering process, led to less stringent conditions like the operational qualification of dairies intending to supply ghee (collecting 400,000 litres of cow milk a day) and company turnover (reduced from Rs 250 crore to Rs 150 crore with the audited balance sheet for one year instead of three years earlier). While these norms were for dairies outside Andhra Pradesh, the ones for within the state were even more relaxed.
The TTD also introduced the reverse auction tendering process, whereby those who had bid higher could supply at the same price as the lowest bidder. Critics say this was a perilous path—the obsession with the relative lower price may have meant inadequate attention to factors like quality, flexibility and on-time delivery. In its defence, the TTD cited the need for at least 15,000 kg of ghee a day. An earlier norm that only dairies within a 1,200 km radius were eligible was also glossed over. Subba Reddy was appointed by Jagan when he became CM in 2019, and continued till 2023. He is also among those who have petitioned the Supreme Court for an independent inquiry by a retired judge. “I am ready to take an oath before the deity, and challenge Naidu to do the same if he truly believes in his accusations,” says the former TTD chairman.
BATTLE FOR TEMPLE CONTROL
Interestingly, when the Tirupati laddoo incident exploded, the VHP was holding a regional meeting in the town (on September 23) attended by seers from both the Telugu-speaking states, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. It was decided there that street protests were not the answer, what was needed was a concerted effort to bring changes in the law to “free Hindu temples” from government control.
Indeed, a large section in the Sangh believes that state governments and their bureaucrats misuse the funds collected by temples. VHP national joint general secretary Surendra Jain advocates a “socialisation of temples” to replace the current “governmentalisation”. He believes that governments keeping control of the temples is a continuation of the mindset of the “Muslim invaders” and the “colonial British”. Since the beginning of Modi 2.0 in 2019, the Sangh affiliates had been aggressive about getting the BJP to take control of temple boards.
In 2021, pressure from the VHP and RSS had forced the Pushkar Singh Dhami government in Uttarakhand to disband the Char Dham Devasthanam Board—which had been set up on the lines of the TTD Board. The big temples the Sangh is now focusing on are Vaishno Devi in the Trikuta hills in J&K, Somnath in Gujarat, Kashi Vishwanath in Varanasi, and Jagannath in Puri, almost all of them in BJP-ruled states. There is also keen interest in the developments at the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram, where a Supreme Court ruling was in favour of the erstwhile Travancore royal family managing the temple affairs.
In a separate move, BJP maverick Subramanian Swamy has moved the apex court challenging the constitutional validity of Tamil Nadu’s Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act, 1959, under which the state has control over 4,000-odd temples. Andhra Pradesh deputy CM Kalyan has added another dimension to the controversy by suggesting that a national Sanatana Dharma Rakshana Board be set up. He has urged a nationwide debate involving all the stakeholders to address temple-related issues and “protect sanatana dharma from desecration”.
With many of the big temples in the country now jittery about the purity of the prasad offerings, expect the courts to get busy dealing with the PILs. So aggrieved has the apex court been over the Tirupati laddoo affair that it asked whether it should order an independent investigation rather than let the central agencies handle it. The entire Tirupati laddoo controversy symbolises a worrying trend—that politicians will not spare even religious offerings for their divisive ends. An ominous portent.
—with Anilesh S. Mahajan and Jumana Shah