The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam has blacklisted AR Dairy and initiated legal proceedings against it for allegedly supplying adulterated ghee to them, the temple board’s executive officer J Syamala Rao said. In its first official response since the allegation on the use of lard, fish oil, and beef tallow in the ghee used to prepare Laddu offering made to the deity in Tirupati, the executive officer said an expert committee was set up to take corrective measures to ensure such an incident does not recur.
We have immediately stopped taking delivery of cow ghee from AR Dairy. We are taking steps to ensure the sanctity of the temple and the offering is maintained and the religious sentiments of Hindus are not hurt,” said J Syamala Rao, Executive Officer, Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD).
Of the ten tankers of ghee that were supplied by AR Dairy, six were used and samples from four tankers have been sent to a government-run laboratory in Gujarat for testing, the official said. The samples belonged to the consignment of tankers sent on 15.
AR Dairy
AR Dairy was among the five firms that were shortlisted during the previous government’s tenure to supply ghee to TTD. The other firms that supplied ghee include Premier Agro Products Private Limited, Kirpa Ram Dairy Private Limited, Vaishnavi Dairy and Sweets, and Parag Milk Foods (Parag Ghee), TTD officials who spoke to HT said.
The S-value analysis carried out on the sample sent to the reputed NDDB CALF Anand fell outside the standard limits, suggesting the presence of foreign fats such as soybean, sunflower, palm kernel fat, or even lard and beef tallow. The acceptable S-value range for pure milk fat is between 98.05 and 104.32, but the tested sample showed values ranging from 23.22 to 116, reflecting significant deviations. These samples also indicated the presence of vegetable oil contamination,” Syamala Rao said while addressing a press conference.
The CALF lab at Anand, Gujarat, run by the National Dairy Development Board confirmed the presence of vegetable fat and animal fat in the ghee samples sent by TTD. Anand is the only place in India that houses an exclusive ghee testing lab and supportive equipment as Amul ships large consignments of ghee overseas.
The lab report was first made public on Wednesday by Telugu Desam Party minister Anam Ramnarayan Reddy. The report caused a flutter among Hindus across the country with TTD receiving nearly 90,000 devotees daily. According to the temple’s annual report on its website, it earns ₹500 crore as revenue from the yearly sale of laddus. The presiding deity, Sri Venkateswara, along with his consort Padmavathi are believed to have manifested in Tirumala, a seven-hill range in the Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh.
The temple officials HT spoke to including the association of employees were completely ignorant of the presence of any contaminant or an adulteration process since the duty of preparing laddus is deemed a highly solemn procedure where all processes are inviolable.
However, an unpleasant odour emanating from the ghee was reported by the temple priests in charge of making the prasadam(offering), upon which the senior officers were alerted.
AR Dairy was among the firms that bid the lowest to win the tender from the TTD. As against a base price of ₹418 per litre of cow ghee, AR Dairy had agreed to supply ghee at ₹320 per litre. Even as AR Dairy was shortlisted as L1 when the tender bids were opened, Nandini Dairy, run by Karnataka’s Milk Federation raised an alarm about the viability of operating at such costs.
Bheema Naik, Chairman of KMF, said, “About one year ago they (TTD) called for a tender and asked us to participate in the tender. We cannot give ghee at the competitive rate, because in the e-procurement tender, whoever quotes the lowest rate will get it.” However, on the insistence of chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, KMF restored ghee supplies when the new government was formed in June.
TTD’s corrective measures
India’s largest and richest temple governing board in Andhra Pradesh has been under duress since the lab report was made public. The Executive Committee set up to suggest a course correction has recommended cessation of delivery of ghee from all the existing players insisting on fresh tenders to be called.
In addition, an internal lab would be set up for periodic testing of ingredients that go into making the temple prasadam. “We are looking to set up a lab akin to the tea-testing laboratories in Guwahati where tea dust is tested for aroma, weight, and colour.”
To set things in order and assuage the anxiety and anger of crores of pilgrims who visit the temple town, several government-run organisations have swung in to offer support to the TTD. The NDDB has placed an order for large-scale testing equipment from an overseas vendor costing ₹75 lakh. This machine will be placed in the kitchen premises at Tirumala werefor testing ghee exclusively.
Mysore-based Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) has agreed to train TTD officials in food safety standards and certification so that such incidents do not recur. In fact, a senior official from CFTRI was part of the team that qualified AR Dairy’s ghee as adulterated.
However, what has shocked the devout TTD’s lackadaisical nature in never testing the purity of the ingredients. J Syamala Rao admitted that “ghee has never been sent for testing in the history of the TTD-run temple”.
Political implications
From New Delhi to Andhra Pradesh, political leaders of all hues have responded sharply calling for corrective action to be taken even as a political slugfest broke out on Friday.
Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP labelled former chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and his YSRC party as anti-Hindu while Jagan called the attempt to malign his party a wicked attempt at using faith to politicise the TTD issue. The Congress party in Andhra Pradesh led by Jagan’s sister and rival Sharmila called for an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation while Telangana Congress leaders have called for the AP government to set up a state-level SIT to probe the wrongdoings of the earlier Jagan government.
Jagan’s uncle YV Subba Reddy, a Christian was one of the past chairmans of the TTD. After public outcry, he was replaced by Karunakar Reddy, who was also alleged to be a practicing Christian. After several pictures of Karunakar Reddy’s daughter’s wedding in Church surfaced on social media platforms, Naidu and his ministers alleged while they were in opposition that the TTD was being run by crypto Christians.
Naidu, in his address to the media, also alleged that the selection of AR Dairy to supply adulterated ghee loaded with animal fat was a deliberate attempt by Jagan to alienate Hindus from their faith.
Deputy chief minister Pawan Kalyan, founder of the Jana Sena Party, and a coaltion partner in NDA, said he was deeply disturbed by the incident. He called for the formation of a ‘Sanatana Dharma Rakshana Board’ at a national level to look into all the issues related to temples in the entire country.
