Hyderabad: In the line of fire over the Tirupati laddoos row, former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy has dismissed the claim that animal fats and fish oil were being used to make laddoos offered to devotees as prasad at Tirupati temple when his government was in power.
Jagan launched an equally strong counter-attack at current CM N Chandrababu Naidu, saying that he was trying to “divert attention” and resorting to “politics in the name of God.”
Jagan, in fact, went a step further to say that a lab report, which found evidence of animal fat and beef oil in the laddoos, is from July when Naidu had already taken over as chief minister post the state Assembly election.
“We got to know that the quality of ghee was bad and immediately informed the Chief Minister,” Jagan Mohan claimed.
He defended his government, saying that normal protocol was followed while picking suppliers during YSR Congress Party’s tenure.
“The tender process occurs every six months, and the qualification criteria has not changed for decades. Suppliers must provide an NABL certificate and a product quality certificate. TTD collects samples from the ghee, and only products that pass certification are used. TDP is politicising religious matters. We rejected the products in our regime 18 times,” said Jagan.
Calling the allegations against him as false, Jagan the entire controversy was unwarranted.
Naidu earlier this week said that animal fat and other sub-standard ingredients were used for making Tirupati laddoos, blaming the previous government for adulteration in the ghee used to make the prasad.
Gujarat-based NDDB CALF laboratory confirmed that ghee (clarified butter) used to make the laddoos did contain animal fats and fish oil.
The Union government earlier on Friday sought a report on the matter.