M.K. Venu 
Those familiar with Chandrababu Naidu and his politics were quite shocked at the manner in which the Andhra CM kicked up a storm around ‘contaminated’ laddus offered as “prasadam” to millions of devotees visiting the famous Tirupathi temple. Being a seasoned politician, Naidu would have known that making a definitive claim that beef tallow and other animal fats were mixed with ghee to make the Tirupati laddus would surely create a communally charged debate in the country.
The Deputy Chief Minister, Pawan Kalyan, went ten steps ahead and demanded a national forum for the protection of Sanatan Dharma! One doesn’t know how this giant leap from contaminated laddus to the need for protection of Sanatan Dharma occurred so fast. For good measure, Pawan Kalyan added if such a thing had happened in a mosque there would be an uproar in the country. Well, Kalyan should know that a 15th century mosque was replaced by a temple not so long ago without much uproar. Those with the insatiable capacity to create any uproar hold all the levers of power today.
The apparently contaminated laddus of Tirupati was clearly a local governance failure of the temple authorities. But for some reason it assumed a communal colour at the national level. The samples of the ghee, from a Tamil Nadu based supplier, AR Dairy Private Ltd, were tested and there is only a slight suspicion of some foreign fat content which is not confirmed yet, according to an IAS officer currently heading the temple administration. In no time the Hindutva ecosystem had begun speculating about AR Dairy’s alleged Muslim antecedents on social media. This is what Naidu and Pawan Kalyan had unleashed in no time.
Writing in The Print, author and journalist, Kapil Komireddy, said ,”The charade which Chandrababu Naidu is orchestrating around the Tirupati temple is the most repugnant act of his public life. Those who have known him are flabbergasted by his transformation into a noxious trafficker of communalism”.
Very strong words coming from someone who has known Chandrababu Naidu much before his alliance with BJP in the run up to the Lok Sabha elections. It is well known that Naidu joined the BJP only to save himself from the criminal cases launched by his arch rival Jagan Reddy who as the CM of Andhra had put Naidu behind bars in 2023. Needless to add that the Centre too had actively helped Jagan Reddy build a case against Naidu. Modi has been playing both ways. Even now, in the middle of this controversy, the PM seems to be playing both sides.
Also read: Did Tirupati Devotees Consume Non-Vegetarian Laddus?
But what is truly baffling to many political observers is that Naidu and his deputy Pawan Kalyan, both of whom have stayed away from divisive politics in the past, should start sounding like some seasoned mouthpieces of the Sangh Parivar. What is the compulsion for them to do this now? Especially when divisive majoritarian politics seems to have hit a plateau of sorts in the northern states like Uttar Pradesh, as was shown in the recent Lok Sabha elections.
Naidu’s spokespersons say his intention was to merely expose former CM of Andhra Jagan Reddy under whose administration things deteriorated in the running of Tirupati Temple affairs. Here again a communal twist is sought to be given by suggesting that Jagan Reddy , a practising Christian himself, had appointed another Christian politician as Chairman of the Tirupathi board of trustees. If this is true then the question to be asked is why so many BJP members agreed to become members of the Tirupati board under Jagan Reddy’s rule. Indeed, Jagan was also actively supporting the Modi government as a de facto ally all those years and even helped the BJP pass critical laws in the Lok Sabha.
So the Modi government cannot afford to throw Jagan under the bus now just because Chandrababu Naidu wants to avenge his predecessor for sending him to jail.
Indeed Naidu and his deputy Pawan Kalyan may have overplayed their cards by lending a communal hue to the Tirupati controversy. The debate has spread to the northern states where assorted characters of the Sangh ecosystem are fulminating against the minorities when the Muslims have nothing to do with what is happening in Tirupati.
Some say the controversy might help the BJP in the elections in Haryana and Maharashtra but that seems a far cry because by all accounts issues of livelihood dominate the elections in both the states where the BJP is firmly on the backfoot. Generally, the issue of Thirupati does not seem to be resonating at all beyond the Hindutva ecosystem which is trying to milk the issue.
In the southern states too this issue is hardly getting any traction. As The Hindu recently reported, the thousands of devotees who visit the temple every day continue to do so and accept the laddus with the same fervour as before. They are not responding to Naidu’s alarmist claims.
The only way forward for the CM of Andhra Pradesh is to honestly come out and do some damage control by treating the issue for what it is: a simple administrative lapse in procuring large amounts of ghee from multiple sources across India. Naidu has set up a Special Investigation Team to probe the matter. He will be well advised to let the SIT do a professional job. He must refrain from the temptation to politicise the SIT investigation. His focus must remain on what he has promised the people of Andhra Pradesh on the development front. That should be his real priority.
This piece was first published on The India Cable – a premium newsletter from The Wire & Galileo Ideas – and has been updated and republished here. To subscribe to The India Cable, click here.