New Delhi: The political slugfest over Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s claim of “presence of animal fat” in the ghee used to make Tirupati prasadam laddoos intensified on Friday as YSRCP chief Jagan Mohan Reddy accused the ruling party of using “faith for politics”.
The Centre also waded into the controversy as the Union health ministry sought a report from the Andhra Pradesh government and Union food and public distribution minister Pralhad Joshi called for a detailed inquiry demanding the “culprit should be punished”. The controversy was triggered by Naidu’s remarks on Wednesday at a legislature party meeting where he said, “Even Tirupati laddoo was made with substandard ingredients… They used animal fat instead of ghee.” He said his government had since ensured a higher quality of ingredients, including ghee. In response, former chief minister Jaganmohan Reddy said on Friday, “The tender process occurs every six months, and the qualification criteria has not changed for decades. Suppliers must provide an NABL certificate and a product quality certificate. TTD collects samples from the ghee, and only products that pass certification are used. TDP is politicising religious matters. We have rejected the products in our regime 18 times.”
Earlier, Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam Executive Officer Shyamala Rao addressed a press conference and said absence of in-house testing facilities had led to the use of poor quality ghee in the laddoos. “Not having its own adulteration laboratory or not sending the ghee samples to outside labs for quality testing were main reasons for compromise on poor quality of ghee,” said Rao, adding, “The supplier took advantage of this lack of quality check to supply bad quality of ghee.” He reiterated that “another important factor was the rate. The rate agreed by the supplier was ₹320 per kg. This itself raises suspicion on the quality of ghee being supplied, as the rate was very low.”Rao further said, “Ghee supplied by all suppliers was satisfactory after testing, except for the ghee supplied by AR Dairy Foods Pvt Limited. Four tankers from this company were seized. On July 6, 2024, two tankers were seized and on July 12, 2024, two more were seized. The samples were sent to CALF Lab at NDDB, Anand, for testing and they proved to be sub-standard.”
