CM Naidu ‘using god for political gains’: Jagan Reddy reacts to Tirupati laddu row as Temple trust backs TDP claims

YSRCP chief Jagan Mohan Reddy dismissed ‘atrocious’ allegations of ghee adulteration at Tirumala temple on Friday amid an escalating political row. The development came even as Union Ministers JP Nadda and Pralhad Joshi sought an investigation into the matter. The YSRCP also moved to the Andhra Pradesh High Court seeking a probe into the claims made by the ruling party.

“The ghee adulteration allegations are atrocious. They are being used to divert attention from 100 days of the N Chandrababu Naidu government in Andhra Pradesh. The CM is such a person who can use god also for political gains…Only Chandrababu Naidu has mentality to use god for politics,” he alleged.

The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister stoked outrage earlier this week after alleging that the previous YSRCP government had used substandard ingredients and animal fat to make the consecrated sweet. The Telugu Desam Party has since circulated a lab report to back the claim.

Reddy however noted that all samples, tests and results mentioned in the contentious lab test reports as evidence had “occurred under NDA government”. He also questioned whether it was “fair to play with sentiments of crores of devotees across the world”.

“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,” he clarified.

Temple officials however claimed that there had been apprehensions about the quality of the prasadam under the previous government. Shamala Rao — the executive officer of Tirumala Tirupathi Devastanam — said there had been no existing system to check the quality of ghee. 

“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...” she said.

(WIth inputs from agencies)