Tirupati prasad row: BJP’s Subramanian Swamy approaches SC, seeks court probe
Updated: Sep 23rd, 2024
BJP’s Subramanian Swamy has joined the fray over the adulteration of the laddu offered as prasad at the Tirumala Tirupati Temple in Andhra Pradesh. The senior BJP leader has filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court, seeking a court-monitored committee to probe the matter.
“Today I filed a PIL seeking Supreme Court direction to investigate unsubstantiated allegation by CM C B Naidu that the Tirupati Tirumala Temple Prasadam were adulterated with meat of animals and other rotten items creating chaos among bhakts,” wrote Swamy on X.
Swamy’s PIL reportedly also poses some questions to the committee, inquiring about the supplier of the said adulterated ghee, if there is a scope of false positive results with the reports, and why a political intervention is allowed in this case.
For the uninitiated, animal products were said to be found in the ghee used for the preparation of Tirupati laddu when the YSR Congress Party was in power in Andhra Pradesh, the ruling Telugu Desam Party had alleged.
Day after Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu stated that animal products were used in preparation of the famous laddu of Tirumala temple, party spokesman Anam Venkata Ramana Reddy revealed that a report of a sample of ghee tested at Gujarat-based livestock laboratory confirmed the presence of foreign fat.
The test done at the Centre of Analysis and Learning in Livestock and Food (CALF) at the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), a facility recognised by the Central government, shows the ghee contained suspected adulterants.
These also included soybean, sunflower, olive, rapeseed, linseed, what germ, maize germ, cotton seed, coconut, palm kernel fat, and palm oil.
The CALF received the sample on July 9, while the lab report was dated July 16.
Naidu also sought a report from the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), holding a meeting on September 20 with ministers and top officials over the issue of quality of Tirumala laddu.
Pawan Kalyan, the Deputy Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, called for the establishment of a ‘Sanatana Dharma Rakshana Board’ amid the controversy regarding the alleged discovery of animal fat in the Tirupati temple laddus.
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