After a week of attacking former CM Jagan Mohan Reddy over Tirupati laddu row, Andhra DCM Pawan Kalyan shifted focus to former TTD board that ‘mismanaged’
Published Sep 24, 2024 | 9:37 AM ⚊ Updated Oct 10, 2024 | 9:19 PM
Tirupati Laddu. (X)
As the dust settles down on the Tirupati laddu row in Andhra Pradesh, things seem to appear more clearly.
After Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanam (TTD) Executive Officer categorically denied the use of adulterated ghee in preparing Sri Vari Laddu, contradicting Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s claims of “animal fat” use, the focus is now shifting to where and when things went awry, if at all as claimed.
The TDP-JSP-BJP coalition’s NDA government in Andhra Pradesh has been lashing out at former Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy for “desecration” of Tirumala temple.
Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan has undertaken an 11-day “penance to atone for sins” by the previous government. The same Pawan Kalyan on Monday, 23 September, said his government wasn’t “blaming” Jagan.
“As a former CM, he (Jagan) could have just said let the law take its course. There is no need for him to defend. We are not blaming him. We are saying the board constituted under him did this, they are responsible,” Pawan Kalyan told reporters.
His statement, differentiating the TTD board from Jagan Mohan Reddy, comes barely a day after Nara Lokesh landed himself in a spot over Tirupati laddu blame game.
In his bid to defend the two-month delay in making the July lab report on ghee sample public, Nara Lokesh said TTD was an autonomous institution and the chief minister’s role was limited to appointing its board members.
Supporters of YSRCP were quick to ask Lokesh why the same logic didn’t apply when his party held YS Jagan responsible for the alleged irregularities. If TDP were to continue holding the former TTD board responsible, it may have to extend the criticism to people linked to its ally, the BJP as well.
Interestingly, the former TTD board comprised at least six members with links to BJP. The former TTD board — who the NDA government in Andhra is holding responsible for approving tenders to vendors who supplied subpar ghee — even had a BJP MLA from Karnataka as its member.
In August 2023, by order of then Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy, 24 members were appointed to the TTD board. Among those appointed was BJP’s MLA from Karnataka, SR Vishwanath.
Another member, Krishna Moorthy Vaithiyanathan from Tamil Nadu is said to have been recommended to the board via the recommendation of a powerful union minister.
Three more members— Amol Kale, Milind Keshav Narvekar, and Bora Saurabh from Maharashtra were recommended by the NDA government’s top leaders from Shiv Sena (Shinde) and BJP.
Another member, Dr Shankar from Tamil Nadu, a former BJP state unit office bearer is said to have been backed by another union minister.
The links between these ex-members of the TTD board and BJP were extensively reported at the time of the appointment.
It was the TTD board, inclusive of members with BJP links, that approved the now-controversial AR Dairy from Tamil Nadu as a supplier for ghee.
AR Dairy applied to participate in the TTD ghee auction for the very first time in November last year. Through the reverse auctioning process, AR Dairy won the bid quoting the lower price per litre of ghee.
According to the TTD EO, the tenders were called on 12 March, 2024, and finalised on 8 May, 2024. The supply started on 15 May, 2024. AR Dairy sent its supplies in June and July.
While six earlier consignments were tested, passed and accepted, four consignments in July were found to be adulterated which led to its rejection and return.
Sources from TTD’s Ghee committee told South First that they had warned the former TTD board against approving a supplier who had bid barely ₹320 per kg of ghee.
At such low prices, the ghee committee members had warned that quality is most likely to be compromised. The board members seemingly pointed to rules that mandate accepting the lowest bidder to override the ghee committee’s recommendations.
The underlying justification was that the consignment could always be rejected if found to be subpar. Rejecting poor-quality supplies isn’t new to TTD. Dozens of consignments have been returned in the past for failing to meet quality standards.
Given that BJP-linked persons were also part of the TTD board that the Naidu government is now blaming for alleged irregularities, will NDA blame NDA is the question.
