Prerana Toshniwal, Pune
The Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) which sells dairy products under the ‘Amul’ brand took to X, formerly Twitter, to ‘stop misinformation campaign against Amul’. With reference to some social media posts mentioning that Amul Ghee was being supplied to Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), @Amul_Coop has denied supplying ghee to TTD.
Amul has filed for an FIR against 7 such accounts involved in propagating this alleged misinformation against them. Ahemadabad police on Saturday, 21st September, registered the FIR. The accused X users were booked under sections 336 (4) and 196 (1) (a) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita(BNS) dealing with forgery intending to harm the reputation of any party, and promoting enmity on grounds of religion, race, etc, respectively. The Ahemadabad police has also invoked provisions of the Information Technology Act.
Jayan Mehta in an interview with ANI has confirmed that Amul ghee was never supplied to the TTD.
Since the posts also referred to Amul Ghee as ‘low quality’, the statement released by Amul over X further clarified that Amul Ghee is made from milk at their ‘State-of-art’ ISO certified production facilities. It was added that the Ghee at Amul is made from high quality pure milk fat and passes through stringent quality checks including adulteration detection as specified by FSSAI.
The row started when N. Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, alleged that during Jagan Mohan Reddy’s tenure as the CM ingredients like animal fat were used in preparation of Tirupati laddus. The former CM and President of YSRC party argued that the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) is “politicising religious matters”. Following this, a massive political row has erupted all over the country among politicians, devotees and laypeople alike.
Amid rising concerns nationwide, TTD has clarified that the ‘sanctity’ of the laddus has been restored. The Tirupati laddus are sacred sweets offered at the Sri Venkateswara Temple visited by millions of devotees each year. In 2008, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams registered for a geographical indication tag to prevent black marketing of Tirupati laddus. In 2009, it also obtained patent rights to Tirupati laddus under the category of foodstuff under the GI Act 1999.