Sabarimala board issues clarification on ‘halal’ markings after row
The Travancore Dewasom Board (TDB) filed the reply after a devotee moved the HC on Wednesday questioning ‘halal’ specifications on jaggery packets.
The Travancore Dewasom Board (TDB) which runs the hill shrine in Sabarimala in Pathanamthitta district on Thursday informed the Kerala High Court that jaggery packets it received from a Maharashtra firm had ‘halal’ stamp on them because it exported them in bulk to Arab countries also.
The TDB filed this reply after a devotee moved the HC on Wednesday questioning ‘halal’ specifications on jaggery packets and said the temple body’s move was “highly unethical and violated religious rights guaranteed under the constitution.”
In the reply the TDB said the present “controversy was unwarranted and uncalled for and aimed at crippling the revenue of the temple and defaming it.”
The Board said the contract for supplying jaggery was given to the firm last year and it supplied 5 lakh kg so far. It also said there are three-level rigorous testing for purity and last year enough quantities of jaggery supplied by another firm was given to a cattle feed company after it failed meet quality control parameters.
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The TDB also said it sent a communiqué to the supplier, SP Sugar and Agro Private Ltd, to remove the specification from temple-bound packets.
The petitioner S J R Kumar, also convenor RSS-backed Sabarimala action committee, contended that jaggery was used to make the main ‘prasadam’ (offering) ‘Aravana Payasam’ of the presiding deity, Lord Ayyappa, and the halal-certified food material is “not sattvik or pure” and it is an insult to believers.
“It is really painful to see that food materials prepared after the ritual and religious practices of another religion with its certification is accepted to use main prasadam of a Hindu temple,” said the petitioner. .
The temple was opened for two-month annual pilgrimage season on November 16.
The newly-elevated TDM president K Ananthagopan, also a senior functionary of the ruling CPI(M), said this was part of a new campaign to defame the temple and cripple its revenue. “We will approach the cyber wing to take action against those who spread canards,” he said. But Hindu Aikya Vedi has sought a detailed probe into this. “It is an insult to the deity and teeming devotees,” said its leader R V Babu.
The Board also said a massive campaign was unleashed on social media in this regard and a complaint was lodged with Sabarimala police station.