Even if third party involved, Tirupati temple trustees guilty: Jyotirmath Shankaracharya

Lucknow: Shankaracharya Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati of Jyotirmath in Uttarakhand on Monday blamed the administrators of the Andhra Pradesh's Tirupati Balaji temple over the 'prasadam' controversy.

"Such a big incident has happened... The trustees of Tirupati temple, the functionaries, those senior officers, all are guilty. Even if the role of a third person emerges during the investigation, prima facie they are the ones who are guilty," the Shankaracharya said while talking to reporters in Lucknow on Monday.

Shankaracharya Avimukteshwaranand made the remarks while responding to a query that sought his views over the controversy regarding the alleged adulteration in Tirupati temple's 'laddu' prasad.

He was in the state capital as part of his nationwide 'Gau Raksha Yatra' that he began on Sunday from Ayodhya where he had refrained from visiting the Ram temple that was consecrated on January 22 earlier this year as the temple was still "incomplete." He expressed concern over cow slaughter in the country and demanded a law to check cow slaughter.

The seer also slammed the NDA for not taking proactive steps in the matter, saying it has been proven that "they have cheated the Hindus". He said if the country's president or prime minister were a "real Hindu", they would not have allowed cow slaughter to occur.

He went on to add, "Either they should have resigned, or passed an order that no cow slaughter can take place now," he said.

He said he was not opposed to any party and added, "Be it the Congress or the BJP, whoever does the work of a butcher will be opposed. The government of butchers cannot run in the country now." Meanwhile, the Samajwadi Party targeted the government by sharing a clip of the Shankaracharya's statement in a post on its official 'X' handle.

The post said, "Maximum beef production or export is happening in the tenure of Chief Minister Yogi (Adityanath)." The party alleged that the Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government "collects donations from beef export companies and in return promotes beef export.''

"BJP's cow protection campaign is a blatant lie, instead of cow shelters, animals are killing humans on the roads. CM Yogi is engaged in corruption in the name of cow shelters; animals are dying of hunger and thirst," it added.

Reacting to the comments of the shankaracharya on the Tirupati laddu row, state BJP spokesperson Aalok Verma, said, "This is a matter of faith ('aasthaa') for crores of Hindus, and the followers of Sanatan Dharma will never believe this. This entire incident should be probed, and the guilty persons should be given the harshest of punishment."

On allegations levelled by the Samajwadi Party, Verma said, "The BJP is a party which renders services to the cows. Everyone in the state knows the situation in the state before 2017. Atrocities were committed on cows. Today, 'gau ashrams' (cow shelters) have been built in every district in the state."