TDP Politicising Religious Matters: YS Jagan Over Tirupati Laddus Row

Responding to the allegations of usage of animal fat in the making of the Tirupati Laddu Prasadam, former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday said that the tender process of the laddu has not changed for decades.

He accused Andhra Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu of "politicising religious matters" as the latter has alleged that the previous YSR Congress-led government used animal fat in Laddus at Sri Venkateswara temple in Tirupati.

"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 politicizing religious matters. We have rejected the products in our regime 18 times," ANI quoted Jaganmohan Reddy as saying.

On the other hand, executive officer of Tirumala Tirupathi Devastanam (TTD) Shamala Rao said the prasadam was sent for lab testing over its quality under CM Naidu's instructions.

"When I took over as executive officer TTD, the CM expressed concern on the ghee procured and the quality of the laddu which is considered to be very sacred and offered as 'Prasadam' to Lord Venkateswara Swamy. Any deviation in the quality will cause doing 'apavithram' (doing something which is not sacred). He wanted me to take steps to ensure that the sanctity of this temple is restored including getting pure cow milk ghee. We started working on that... We found that we don't have any internal lab to test adulteration in the ghee.

There is no system to check the quality of ghee in outside labs also... The rates quoted by tenderers are unviable, they are so low that anyone can say that pure cow ghee cannot cost so less... We warned all suppliers, that they will be blacklisted if the ghee supplied doesn't pass the lab test... We collected all samples and sent it to the best lab, it is government-controlled, and the reports have come and are shocking,"she said.