Andhra Pradesh: 'animal fats' scandal at Tirumala temple

Four hours of "ritualistic sanitation" are needed to cleanse a historic Hindu temple visited by millions of pilgrims every year after lab tests found traces of animal fats in laddu sold to devotees to be presented as offerings. The recently elected chief minister, a BJP ally, blames his predecessor for the problem. The latter writes to PM Modi to slam his successor and call for an independent investigation.

Delhi (AsiaNews/Agencies) – The Sri Venkateswara Swami temple, located on the hills of Tirumala, Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh), is widely popular with devotees. But today it underwent a  "ritualistic sanitation" after allegations were made that it was the scene of sacrilegious practices, namely the mixing of animal fats in the preparation of laddu, a typical Indian sweet sold at the temple to be presented as an offering.

The ritual cleansing of the temple, which is the destination of millions of pilgrims every year, was performed from 6 to 10 am.

The story has a clear political undertones. Andhra Pradesh’s current Chief  Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu, a veteran local politician who returned to power last June in alliance with the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), blames his predecessor, Jagan Mohan Reddy, an ally of the Indian National Congress (INC).

Nara claims that a Gujarat-based lab found traces of beef tallow, lard, and fish oil in samples of ghee, a South Asian type of butter, used to make laddus; for this reason, he slammed Reddy and his administration for failing to properly supervise temple supply contracts, and announced an investigation into the affair.

Rejecting Naidu’s accusations, Andhra Pradesh’s former chief minister wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that his opponent “stooped so low as to hurt the beliefs of crores[*] of people purely for political objectives”.

He also called for an independent commission of inquiry headed by a retired Supreme Court justice.

For Reddy, “It is very imperative that Mr Naidu be reprimanded in the severest way for his shameless act of spreading lies and that the truth be brought to light.”

Photo: Nikhil B 

[*] One crore = ten million.

• india
• andhra pradesh
• temple
• laddu
• ritualistic sanitation
• animal fats
• scandal