THE-POLITICS OF PURITY

The Tirupati laddoo controversy reflects the worrying trend of using even prasad for divisive ends

- AMARNATH K. MENON, Anilesh S. Mahajan and Jumana Shah

The Sri Venkateswara temple at Tirumala in Andhra Pradesh is the holiest of holy shrines for a vast number of Hindus. And almost as famous as Lord Balaji, as the resident deity is popularly known, is the temple prasad, the 'Tirupati laddoo'. Legend has it that one of the earliest forms of the prasad was documented way back in 1715. Today, so coveted is the sweet offering that the temple produces some 300,000 daily, contributing Rs 500 crore to the annual kitty of the world's richest Hindu shrine.

Rice, chickpea flour, cashew, cardamom, raisins, sugar candy and 'pure cow's ghee...these are some of the 10-odd ingredients used to make the laddoo. But it's the last mentioned item that has now created a huge controversy. On September 18, Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu alleged that the ghee used to prepare the Tirupati laddoo prasadam during his predecessor Jagan Mohan Reddy's time had traces of "animal fat" in it.

All hell broke loose soon after, with other political parties, including allies of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the state-the Jana Sena Party (JSP) and the BJP-joining the chorus to accuse the previous Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) government of negligence. Jagan hit back, calling the allegations "malicious", and castigating Naidu for insinuating that his Christian faith was somehow linked to the alleged wrongdoings at the temple.

THE SUPREME INTERVENTION

The incident soon seeped into the national discourse, with #tirupatiladdoo trending on social media and right-wing Hindutva organisations raising the bogey of faith being under attack yet again. Most importantly, it set off a chain reaction among many of the big temples across India. From the new Ram temple in Ayodhya to the Bankey Bihari temple in Vrindavan to the Jagannath shrine in Puri to Trimbakeshwar in Nashik, samples of the temple prasad were being sent to labs to test their ingredients.