Tirupati laddu row: The laddu as a political weapon

Data show that the sale of laddus at Tirumala have shown no fall even after the controversy erupted. File photo: Special Arrangement

A famous sweet has left a bitter taste in Andhra Pradesh. Over the last week, the ghee-filled Srivari laddu, the prasadam or religious offering made to the deity of Sri Venkateswara at Tirumala in Tirupati district, has been in the midst of a political storm.

It began with Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu making a startling statement that “animal fat” had been used to make the prasadam during the previous YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) government’s tenure. The Opposition, which was initially taken aback by the accusation, responded saying his statement was “irresponsible” and had been “made with malicious intent”. Senior YSRCP leaders Y.V. Subba Reddy and Bhumana Karunakar Reddy, who had been appointed by the previous Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy to serve as the Chairpersons of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) trust board, condemned Mr. Naidu’s statement. They said they would swear in front of the deity to prove their innocence. Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy accused Mr. Naidu of playing politics.

TTD executive officer J. Syamala Rao made public the lab report of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), which had found the ghee sample to contain high levels of fish oil, beef tallow, and lard. He said that the Tamil Nadu-based supplier would be blacklisted, and criminal proceedings would be initiated against the company if it failed to respond suitably to its show-cause notice.

Soon, political leaders across the country reacted to the issue. Hindu activists in Bhopal burnt Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s effigy, holding him responsible for the act. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi posted on X saying there needs to be thorough examination of the issue. Union Minister for Health J.P. Nadda sought a report on the laddu and Union Food Minister Prahlad Joshi too called for a detailed probe. Going a step further, Union Minister of State for Home Bandi Sanjay called for a ban on employing people of other faiths in TTD.

Controversies are not new for the TTD. Ahead of the 2019 general elections, the YSRCP, which was then in the Opposition, attacked the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government saying an “invaluable pink diamond” had “gone missing” from the deity’s treasury. The claim snowballed into a political and poll issue when a senior temple priest said that the Opposition’s claims were correct. The TTD management responded by filing a defamation suit against the priest and a YSRCP leader. After the change of guard in 2019, the case was withdrawn and the pink diamond controversy ended with a whimper.

Between 2019 and 2024, too, the TTD was often in the news for the wrong reasons. In 2019, some claimed that there were proselytisation attempts being made on the hills. The police arrested three people for spreading fake news. The same year, a Jerusalem pilgrimage campaign advertisement printed on the back of Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation bus tickets issued for the Tirumala hill shrine sparked a row, with State units of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alleging a “government-led conspiracy” to hurt the sentiment of Hindus. In 2020, TTD officials received a complaint that a subscriber in Guntur had received the TTD bulletin, ‘Sapthagiri’, along with propaganda material of an alien faith. Many of these incidents were used by the detractors of Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy, who is Christian, to label him “anti-Hindu”.

This time, despite the lab report confirming the presence of ingredients such as lard, which many say have “hurt Hindu sentiments”, the average devotee seems unfazed. This is the time of the auspicious ‘Purattasi’ Tamil month and devotees have accepted the revered Srivari laddu as a maha prasadam (great offering). Data show that the sale of laddus at Tirumala have shown no fall even after the controversy erupted.

Meanwhile the YSRCP, Congress, and the Left believe that the tankers containing the adulterated ghee were seized in mid-July and that the results of the tests had come out by the end of July. They have demanded to know why the issue was kept under wraps until September. They allege that Mr. Naidu has not been able to achieve much in the last 100 days and now wants to use this to divert attention from his shortcomings. They also believe that he is raking it up to so that the TDP and the BJP can together target Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy while whipping up Hindu sentiments.