‘Laddus’ to drugs, adulteration is a national crisis

livemint.com:

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. "Since 2-3 years, Amma used to fall sick if she tasted Tirupati Laddu and used to tell us not to eat too much of it. We put it on her general paranoia as she has a hundred complaints about hyegine (sic) everywhere.

Now I feel a part of her sensed something terribly wrong with the Laddu". On the 19 September, this post appeared on X aka Twitter. I found the post intriguing for its sad, wistful tone.

Was Amma dead? Why else would the author write it in this way, the way one would talk about the misunderstood family pet, the horse that refused to cross the damaged bridge or the dog that barked at the cobra under the woodpile and saved the family’s baby? Why not ask Amma, that unsung hero, why the laddus troubled her? I read the post so many times in admiration of its synthetic charm, the way it drew a portrait of a prophet not honoured at home. As it turned out, I would have many more chances to read it because this highly specific story was tweeted by dozens of accounts, each pretending to be just another account offering their individual anecdote in the “adulterated" Tirupati laddu scandal. The wits of X immediately declared this phenomenon a “one nation, one amma, one laddu" scheme.

Others asked why Appa was denied the chance to try the laddu that Amma ate every year. Obviously, it was a plain case of an internet disinformation campaign style called astroturfing. Astroturf, as I am sure you know, originally was just a successful brand of fake grass, the kind you can roll out like a carpet.