Mumbai: A recently viral video on social media portrays mice scurrying over packets meant to be ‘prasad’ originating from Mumbai’s Siddhivinayak Temple. The Shree Siddhivinayak Ganapati Mandir Trust (SSGT), which runs the temple, came out strongly denying any such incidents, stating that the video was taken “somewhere outside” and not in or around the temple. Sada Sarvankar, the chairperson of the trust and a member of Maharashtra’s ruling Shiv Sena party, interjected with a news agency saying, “Lakhs of ‘laddus’ are distributed daily to the devotees at our temple,” The preparation area is always kept hygienically clean”. “The place is very dirty, that’s clear it is not from our temple.”
Sarvankar has tried to reassure the devotees that a high standard when preparing the prasad and its cleanliness. Even in items such as ghee, cashew, and other stuff, we make sure that it has been analysed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) laboratory. The water we use is also analysed to ensure that it is safe for the users. ”It is to clarify that we use all efforts to make the prasad offered to devotees hygienically clean and safe,” he stressed.
In regard to various issues, Sarvankar stated that CCTV footage of the temple would be played, and a police investigation would be launched. But if there is anything wrong, then some action will surely be taken against the responsible persons, he continued.
In the circulating video, spoons of laddus packed in a blue tray have been opened and half-eaten, with a mouse moving over the remnants. The veracity of this video cannot be confirmed, but the temple authorities are treating the video message very seriously. It is worth mentioning that according to Hindus, the mouse is the vahana of Lord Ganesha, to whom Siddhivinayak Temple is dedicated. The like mind for the purity of prasad is maintained by the temple trust even when they involve any appropriation of their holy symbolism.
This incident comes close on the heels of another controversy regarding prasad at the Sri Venkateshwara Temple in Andhra Pradesh, where the former Chief Minister-N Chandrababu Naidu had alleged that the laddus prepared in Antarre, which was being distributed, contained ‘animal fats’.
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