It’s not about the laddus, stupid!

If Tirupati fracas focuses attention of food adulteration, it would serve some purpose

Alok Tiwari

In the last week or so, India seems to have dodged a bullet. A very carefully leaked report of a lab from Gujarat told us about presence of animal fats in ghee used for making laddus at Tirupati. The report understandably led to a fracas with political parties quick to capitalize on the development. The controversy failed to gather much steam possibly because both the previous and the current rulers of Andhra Pradesh happened to be allied with those who would usually lead the outrage on Hindu matters. Also, it helped that nowhere in the supply chain was a Muslim person or business organization led by Muslims involved. With the biggest trigger of right-wing troll army and anchors missing, the issue is petering out.

Also, the devotees of Lord Venkateshwara, unlike the devotees of some other deities in recent times, turned out to be mature. They did not immediately set out on the streets burning down everything in sight. Instead, they are waiting for more facts to emerge from what looks like a systematic effort to stir up trouble. It is an extraordinary and praiseworthy show of restraint given the level of devotion that Tirupati elicits and the level of provocation that was raised for them. There are many questions about the episode that remain unanswered. Some of them have been raised in the Supreme Court through a PIL by BJP dissident Subramanian Swamy.

Swamy has called for a SC monitored investigations into the entire case. It is not yet known who collected the samples of ghee, how were the samples secured to prevent them being tampered with, was the ghee that turned out to be adulterated actually used or discarded, is it normal practice to send samples from Tirupati all the way to NDDB lab in Gujarat for testing? How was the report leaked and by whom? If the SC agrees to examine the matter and initiates an investigation, hopefully some of these questions would be answered. We also must know who stood to benefit from raising the issue in public instead of first alerting the government authorities and Tirupati Devasthanam officials. It was a reckless act that could have led to large scale disturbances and further tearing of social harmony in the country. Isn’t it strange that those who are wanting to fix political accountability about the case are silent on this aspect?

Yet, there are valuable learnings from this case. Quite apart from the mischief mongering motive behind raising the matter, if it helps focus attention on the overall quality of food items that we consume, it would have still served some purpose. Far from an organized conspiracy to desecrate one of the holiest shrines of the Hindus and thus despoil their faith, it appears consignment of adulterated ghee were being supplied or had somehow ended up at Tirupati. That there was no ulterior motive to defile the sanctity of the place and the prasad does not make the matter less serious. In fact, as consumers we ought to be more concerned about such adulteration in products we buy. The supply chains that bring what we consume to us are not subject to the rigorous testing that the one bringing ghee to Tirupati is. There is thus no chance of such an adulteration being detected in ghee we buy. It is immaterial whether mixing outside fats causes any harm to health of consumers. We have a right to know what is being used in what we eat, and we cannot be made to consume things that we do not wish to, rationally or irrationally.

It is not limited to ghee. Food adulteration remains rampant in India. In fact, quality of virtually everything we eat or drink is severely compromised. Our veggies and fruits are loaded with pesticides, meats contain unacceptable levels of antibiotics and other pollutants. Experts suggest more honey is sold in the country than can possibly be produced, some of it at such cheap rates that it would not meet the cost of production. India imports large quantities of special sugars that can be used to mix with honey and not be detected in standard tests. Where does it go? India is among the biggest importers of palm oil, but it is tough to see it in stores. Where does it end up? If the level of testing that was applied to Tirupati ghee is applied to what is sold across the country, it might lead to extremely disturbing revelations.

The only reason things continue to be the way they are is because we do not care about our personal health and well being as much as we do about real or imagined religious affronts. Even a devotee would consume Tirupati laddu once in a few months, but they eat what is made in their homes every day. So, if contaminated ghee is being sold in the market it is a much more serious matter. You can bet that if a well-meaning NGO or an odd FDA official ever brings this to our notice, we will shrug it off as consequence of living in a developing country.

It should not be so. We have mechanisms in place to check the quality of food being supplied. But these offices are short-staffed, corrupt, and under influence of industry bigwigs hence do not deliver. Politicians do not bother because they know delivering safe food and water is not a vote-catcher, raising religious bogeys is. The governments will happily spend thousands of crores in developing religious places and taking people to pilgrimages. They will not strengthen the Food and Drug Administrations and pollution control boards and demand accountability from them. As long as this is true, we may be sure prasad from our shrines is pure but the ghee on our kitchen shelf will remain suspect.

This column appeared in Lokmat Times on Sept 25, 2024