Politicians globally do everything possible to consolidate their vote banks. In India, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) routinely polarizes and labels “pure vegetarians” as Hindus, and meat eaters as anti-Hindu.
Now, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), an ally of the BJP, has attempted to politicize the prasadam (a food offering to the deity that is subsequently distributed among devotees) of the Tirupati temple, Hinduism’s holiest temple, in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.
TDP President and Andhra Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu recently alleged that the laddoo, a sweet that is offered to the deity Venkateshwara, was laced with “animal fat instead of pure ghee.”
While ghee, which is clarified butter, is regarded as dairy fat, animal fat is anathema to vegetarian Hindus. Naidu’s claim that the holy Tirupati laddoo was made with “beef tallow,” “lard,” and “fish oil’” was therefore an allegation of blasphemy.
Naidu alleged that the contamination took place during the regime of former Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy, his predecessor, arch-rival, and chief of the opposition Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP). Naidu said he has set things in order since becoming chief minister in June this year.
Naidu’s claims expectedly sparked off a huge controversy. Hindus are outraged over the desecration of their religious beliefs and of the temple, and Hindutva votaries are keen to draw benefit from their sentiments.
The BJP was quick to jump into the controversy. The religious sentiments of Hindus have been “defiled,” BJP spokesperson Amit Malviya said, arguing that those responsible for the contamination “must be incarcerated.”
Naidu has buttressed his allegations with laboratory reports of a tested ghee sample. As per the National Dairy Development Board report, the samples tested in July purportedly showed the presence of “animal fats.”
Incidentally, many have questioned why the lab testing was done in the BJP-ruled state of Gujarat and not closer home in Hyderabad.
Meanwhile, J. Syamala Rao, the executive officer of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), the board that administers the Tirupati temple, went on record to deny that the adulterated ghee was used for making laddoos. The board had rejected the adulterated ghee from A R Dairy and sent it for testing; the lab results pertained to that rejected sample. “That ghee was never used, 100 percent,” he told The Print categorically.
The TTD Board or Trust functions under the Andhra Pradesh state government.
Reddy has rejected Naidu’s allegations outright. He accused Naidu of attempting to divert attention from his own 100 days of misgovernance and accused Naidu of “play[ing] with the sentiments of crores [tens of millions] of devotees across the world.”
Due to the sensitive nature of the issue, politicians cutting across party lines have urged that the “religious sanctity of temples be protected.” In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi described the issue as “disturbing” and called for a probe. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi said that her party would ask for “an audit of all temples across the country and not just Tirupati.”
Many believe that Naidu’s claims are aimed at settling scores with his predecessor. During his tenure as Andhra chief minister, Reddy arrested Naidu, and the latter was in jail for 53 days.
Additionally, Naidu has used this controversy to question the motivations of Reddy, a Christian, in allowing the contamination of laddoos. It seems aimed at weakening, even destroying, Reddy’s chances of making a political comeback in future.
According to political observers, Naidu is also hoping to strengthen his position in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance by actively wooing the Hindu vote bank. This is important, especially in the context of the rise of Pavan Kalyan, chief of the Jana Sena Party (JSP), a coalition partner of the TDP-BJP-JSP government in Andhra.
Kalyan is known to be closer than Naidu not just to the BJP but also to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. By upping his Hindutva appeal, Naidu is hoping to keep Kalyan in check.
However, in terms of optics, Naidu is no match for Kalyan, who has been milking the laddoo controversy to the maximum to shore up his Hindutva credentials. “We shouldn’t remain silent when Hindu temples are desecrated,” he said, alleging that “If this happened in mosques or churches, the nation would erupt” in violence. Kalyan is undertaking an 11-day “penance” to atone for the sacrilege done to the Hindu faith. Significantly, elaborate rituals and cleansing programs are being carried out at the Tirupati temple to assure devotees that its purity has been restored.
Meanwhile, several petitions have been filed by Hindu groups, including senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, before the Supreme Court praying for a court-monitored investigation into the adulteration allegation. There is no clarity as to whether the ghee was just of poor quality or it was deliberately tampered with to sully the Hindu faith. A recent article published on the news portal Wire said that all evidence points to plant- rather than animal-based adulteration.
While Union Health Minister J. P. Nadda has demanded a report from the Andhra government, given the importance of prasadam in Hindu religious belief, Chief Minister Naidu has set up a Special Investigation Team to probe the incident.
Even as political mudslinging over the laddoo controversy is dominating news headlines, the takeaways from this episode appear to be far more insidious.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), which is part of the Sangh Parivar, an umbrella grouping of Hindutva organizations, has categorically declared that they want Hindu temples freed from government control. Addressing the press after a VHP apex body meeting at Tirupati on September 24, Surendra Jain, VHP joint general secretary said that state governments exercising control over temples is a symbol of “colonial mindset and slavery.”
“When minorities can run their institutions, why not Hindus?” he asked.
The VHP has declared that it would launch a nationwide campaign through demonstrations and agitations in every state “demanding that the temples be handed over to Hindu society.”
Apart from control over temple administration, what is at stake is the enormous wealth of temple trusts. The Tirupati temple alone has assets worth billions of dollars and is considered to be one of the richest temples in the country.
The VHP wants temple wealth, which is administered at present by government trusts, to be “spent for Hindu causes only.”
Meanwhile, the Hindutva politics fanned by the laddoo contamination controversy refuses to die down. Reddy was forced to cancel his visit to the Tirupati temple on Friday allegedly due to “restrictions placed on him and his supporters by the Andhra Pradesh government.” Naidu refuted his claims, saying that Reddy had shied away from signing a declaration that non-Hindus are required to sign to enter the Tirupati temple. Incidentally, Congress President Sonia Gandhi had in the past signed this declaration.
Ironically, despite the raging controversy, devotees it seems have largely remained unfazed. The sale of Tirupati laddoos has been unaffected. Over 160,000 laddoos were sold between September 16 to 23, according to the TTD Board.
Back in 1857, a mutiny of Indian sepoys or soldiers against British colonial rule was sparked off by rumors that gunpowder cartridges that soldiers had to bite before using them were laced with cow fat and pig lard. Since Hindus and Muslims regard beef tallow and pig lard, respectively, as offensive, the rumor set off suspicions and anger that this was a ploy by their British rulers to desecrate their faith. The same suspicions are doing the rounds in India today.
Little appears to have changed regarding religious sentiments in India of 2024.