Politicising the laddu: The Hindu Editorial on the Tirupati laddu and its ‘adulteration’
On the face of it, the allegations are rather serious — the adulteration of ghee (clarified butter) — used in the making of Tirupati’s famed laddu prasadam — with ‘foreign fat’. The charges were made by no less than Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu himself, and his son and Minister Nara Lokesh, on September 18, against his predecessor and Leader of the Opposition, Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy of the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP). Since then, the issue has snowballed into a free-for-all, with leaders of Mr. Naidu’s central alliance partner, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), seeking an ‘independent investigation’. Former BJP MP Subramanian Swamy has even sought a Supreme Court-monitored probe. Unsurprisingly, as The Hindu has re...