On 19th September, a devotee named Donthu Padmavati visited the Sri Venkateswara temple and got the Prasadam for her family. She has claimed that she has found traces of tobacco in the sacred Tirupati Prasadam of the Sri Venkateswara temple in Tirupati. This claim is made amid the ongoing animal fat controversy of Tirupati Laddu.
Donthu Padmavati is a resident of the Khammam district. She has recently claimed that she found tobacco traces in the holy Tirupati Prasadam while she was distributing it to her family members. She said, “As I was just about to distribute the Tirupati Prasadam, I was horrified to find pieces of tobacco wrapped in a small paper. The laddus are supposed to be sacred, and to find such contamination is very disheartening.”
The trust that is responsible for managing the temple, Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), has denied the claims and has called the allegations baseless and misleading. TTD said, “It is both misleading and deplorable to suggest the presence of tobacco in a system that is so rigorously controlled.” TTD has also approached the devotee and asked her to store the laddu for investigation.
What is the Controversy?
Tirupati Prasadam controversy began on 18th September when N Chandrababu Naidu, the CM of Andhra Pradesh revealed that during the previous YSRCP government which was led by YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, animal fats were used in the ghee used to prepare the Tirupati Laddus.
Nara Lokesh, the Andhra Pradesh minister and son of CM Chandrababu Naidu, had also shared a video of his father on X. In the video, Chandrababu Naidu said, “The Lord Venkateswara Swamy Temple at Tirumala is our most sacred temple. I am shocked to learn that the Y. S. Jagan administration used animal fat instead of ghee in the Tirupati Prasadam.”
After this allegation put by N Chandrababu Naidu, the Prasadam was sent to the lab and the lab report revealed that the ghee used in the Tirupati laddu contained traces of beef tallow, fish oil and lard, which is a semi-solid white fat extracted from pigs.
Pawan Kalyan, the Deputy CM of Andhra Pradesh is performing an 11-day 'Prayashchitta Diksha, because of the controversy of Tirupati Prasadam. He said, “Today marks the third day of Prayashchitta Diksha. Since my childhood, I have followed Sanatana Dharma. I am a devotee of Sri Ram and proud to be a Hindu.”
However, TTD has reinsured the devotees that all needed steps are taken in order to restore the purity of the Prasadam and urged the devotees to not lose faith.