Andhra Dy CM Pawan Kalyan calls for national ‘Sanatana Dharma Rakshana Board’ after reports confirm the presence of animal fat in Tirupati Prasadam

Earlier this week, the reports of animal fat being used to make Tirupati Prasadam kicked up a major controversy, with Hindus across the country feeling betrayed for Tirupati Balaji devotees being fed with Prasadam that reportedly contained animal fat.

On 20th September Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister and Jana Sena Party chief, Pawan Kalyan called for the creation of a “Sanatana Dharma Rakshana Board” in response to the escalating controversy over the traces of animal fat found in the ghee utilised for preparing laddus at Sri Venkateswara temple in Tirupati during YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) government. The laddus were served as prasad or prasadam at the renowned Hindu temple.

Responding to a post urging the Andhra Pradesh government to investigate the matter and severely penalize the offenders he expressed, “We are all extremely disturbed by the discovery that animal fat (fish oil, pork fat and beef fat) was mixed with Tirupathi Balaji Prasad.” He added that the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) board constituted under former chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy needs to be held accountable for the shocking development. “Many questions to be answered by the TTD board constituted by the YCP government then,” he asserted and assured, “Our government is committed to taking stringent action possible.”

Notably, the deputy chief minister also pointed out multiple issues about the Hindu community including the desecration of temples, their land issues and other dharmic practices and highlighted, “Maybe the time has come to constitute a ‘Sanatana Dharma Rakshana Board’ at a National level to look into all the issues related to temples in the entire Bharath.” The actor-turned-politician called for a national debate involving policymakers, religious heads, judiciary, citizens and media among others. “I think we all should come together to put an end to the desecration of ‘Sanatana Dharma’ in any form,” he concluded.

Centre of Analysis and Learning in Livestock and Food (CALF) lab at the centre-run National Dairy Development Board in Gujarat revealed that animal fat was used to make the famous Tirupati laddus when the YSRCP was in power. The alarming report came to light on 19th September, a day after Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu accused the earlier YS Jagan Mohan Reddy regime of using animal fat in making the sacred laddus.

“They (YSRC government) not only provided substandard food to the devotees, such as Anna Prasadam in Tirumala, but also used inferior quality ingredients to make Prasadam, which is offered to Lord Venkateswara. Instead of using pure ghee, they used animal fat. Today, we are using pure ghee and cleansed the system in the temple. Quality of Prasadam and food has improved and steps are being taken to make further improvements,” he stated during his address at the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) legislative party meeting.

The report disclosed that the ghee used to make the famous Tirupati laddu prasadam contained beef fat, fish oil and lard (pig fat). Additionally, the laddus were also made with substances such as soybean, sunflower, olive, rapeseed, linseed, wheat germ, maize germ, cotton seed, coconut, palm kernel fat, and palm oil.

Meanwhile, Dravidianists have already started to poke fun at Hindus on this sensitive issue. “Did you get a good laddu? Just a few days back, we got cream bun a few days ago. We got a good bun. All these days you kept looking at others’ plates if they were consuming beef, you even checked their refrigerators, and you even killed. At least 100 crore people would have visited Tirupati. They would have got laddus. What happened? Did you enjoy the beef? Did you like it? You are done. At least now do not look at another person’s plate. Go do your work. Perumal himself gave a good laddu to you,” mocked one such pro-Congress ‘environmentalist’ named Piyush Manush.