Tirupati Laddu controversy: CM Naidu attacks former CM Jagan, says- unholy work was done in Tirumala, now SIT will investigate

Amid the controversy over the alleged use of animal fat in the ghee of laddus of Andhra Pradesh's world-famous temple Tirupati Balaji, CM Chandrababu Naidu attacked former CM Jagan Mohan Reddy. He said that many unholy things happened in the Tirumala temple in the last five years. Devotees also protested against this. Naidu said that he has decided to form a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the irregularities. Naidu also alleged that during the previous state government, appointments in the TTD board had become like "gambling" and there are examples of appointing people who had no faith and non-Hindus were given preference in the board.

He said that thousands of Hindu devotees across the country consider Tirumala as the most divine and sacred. Lord Balaji is one of the beloved deities. It is believed that all prayers will be heard here. Once when I went there to offer Prasad, I was attacked. It was a miracle that God saved me, otherwise I would not have survived. He said that the laddu prasad and food given in Tirumala are now made from pure ingredients. It has a very special taste. Earlier when I was the CM, I had called Ramdev Baba and we had planted many Ayurvedic plants around the temple.

How was the adulteration in Laddus revealed?

There was a change of power in Andhra in June. After which Chandrababu Naidu's party has returned to power. After assuming the post of Chief Minister, Chandrababu Naidu had expressed suspicion of adulteration in the laddus of the temple. After this, the temple administration took samples of the ghee supplied and sent them to the Gujarat-based Dairy Development Board (NDDB) lab 'Center of Analysis and Learning in Live Stock and Food' (CALF) for testing. After this, shocking revelations were made in the lab report.

The report of the NDDB lab revealed that the amount of pure milk fat in pure ghee should have been between 95.68 and 104.32. However, the value of milk fat was found to be only 20 in the samples. Due to this, this adulterated ghee was revealed. After this, a big controversy arose. According to the lab report, elements like soybean, sunflower, olive oil, wheat, corn, cottonseed, fish oil, coconut, palm oil, beef tallow, and lard have been found in these samples. This ghee was supplied by a Chennai-based company named AR Dairy and Agro Products.

The company has been banned by the government. However, the company clarified this matter and said that the ghee we had sent in June-July. Its sample test was collected by FSSAI and Agmark. Our sample was also passed in TTD's lab. There is no adulteration of any kind in my ghee.