On Friday, Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan set up a ‘Sanatana Dharma Rakshana Board’ as the controversy about the ingredients in Tirupati laddoos came. The Jana Sena Party chief posted on X, ‘We are all deeply disturbed with the findings of animal fat (fish oil, pork fat and beef fat) mixed in Tirupathi Balaji Prasad. Many questions to be answered by the TTD board constituted by YCP Govt then’, He further added that the Andhra government is committed to taking strict action.
‘The time has come to constitute a ‘Sanatana Dharma Rakshana Board’ at a National level to look into all the issues related to temples in entire Bharath’, wrote the minister. He stated that there’s also a need for a debate among the policy makers, religious heads, the judiciary, the citizens and the media among others. However, the controversy emerged after Andhra CM N Chandrababu Naidu made allegations on Thursday that the previous Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government had used animal fat instead of ghee to prepare the laddoo ‘prasadam’ at Tirumala.
Later, state minister and Telugu Desam Party’s national general secretary Nara Lokesh Naidu said that a laboratory test of the ghee used to prepare the laddoos has confirmed the presence of fish oil and beef tallow. The YSRCP had dismissed Naidu’s allegations and went quiet after the test results were released by the Telugu Desam Party’s social media accounts on Thursday. In his statement on Friday, Pawan Kalyan also stated that the findings also signifies issues surrounding, desecration of temples, its land issues and related dharmic practices. He further added, ‘I think we all should come together to put an end to desecration of ‘Sanathana Dharma’ in any form’.
However, Nandini Ghee, the traditional milk and dairy product supplier to the temple, said that their supply was stopped by the temple committee for the past four years. It was only as recent as July of this year that their services was reinstated.
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