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Sabarimala ‘Halal’ Jaggery controversy: Kerala High Court seeks report from Food Safety Department

The Commune

The Kerala High Court, on Monday has directed the Commissioner of Food Safety to give an explanation regarding the ongoing controversy that ‘stale halal jaggery’ is being used at Sabarimala to prepare neivedyam and prasadam.

The controversy reached the High Court after SJR Kumar, the general convener of the Sabarimala Action Committee — a group formed after the 2018 Supreme Court judgment permitting entry of women of all ages into the temple — alleged in a petition that the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), was using halal-certified jaggery in the preparation of prasadam at Sabarimala.

The petitioner had written, “The use of Halal certified food materials, which is specifically prepared as per the religious beliefs of another community, is not a Satwik/pure material to be offered to Lord Ayyappa, a Naishtika Brahmachari meditating in Yoga asana.”

When the Kerala High Court asked the TDB authorities for a report, they said that the claims are absolutely false, baseless and are made purposefully with the malicious intention to hamper the sale of prasadams during the pilgrimage season. Reports say that the revenue from the sale of the two prasadams, ‘Appam’ and ‘Aravana’ account to almost 50% of the temple’s earnings in the annual pilgrimage season.

TDB explained that ‘halal’ — an Arabic word that translates as “permissible” in English — mentioned on the jaggery packaging was due to the fact that the company from which the said consignment was obtained also exported jaggery to Arab countries, where the rules mandate the sale of halal foods per Islamic rules. They also argued that materials used for preparing the prasadam underwent strict quality checks twice before being distributed to the public.

Today, a division bench comprising of Justice Anil K Narendran and Justice PG Ajithkumar sought response from the Food Safety Department in a plea seeking assurity that only high-quality Satwik materials are used for the preparation of Prasadam/neivedyam at the Sabarimala temple. The matter will be taken up again on Wednesday by which time the report is to be made available.

Meanwhile, Indu Makkal Katchi chief, Arjun Sampath, bought the issue to notice by tweeting about the controversy. In a thread of tweets, Arjun Sampath exposed the reality behind how ‘Halal’ food was made and cautioned saying, “Before you touch that next plate of Biryani…. It’s halal only if they spit on the food! Submissions at the court!” Check out the full tweet here:

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