 "Dhaka dampener ahead of Durga Puja: Are anti-India feelings behind Bangladesh’s hilsa export ban?")
In less than a month’s time (October 9), West Bengal will celebrate Durga Puja with much gusto and enthusiasm. A large part of celebrations will be families cooking hilsa, the most popular and favourite choice of seafood, in mustard oil. However, this Durga Puja, the Bangladesh interim government is playing spoilsport by banning the export of the popular fish, hilsa.
This move will create a shortage of the fish and send prices soaring, putting a dampener on celebrations for middle-class families. It also marks the end of the fish diplomacy between Bangladesh and India.
We take a closer look at what exactly is this fish diplomacy and how Bangladesh’s decision to ban the export of hilsa to India will affect the country.
Bangladesh ban on hilsa export
Earlier this week, at a meeting with the Fisheries and Livestock Journalists Forum, Farida Akhter, adviser to the Bangladesh ministry of fisheries and livestock, announced that no hilsa would be exported to India this year.
“No hilsa will be exported to India for Durga Puja this year,” she was quoted by several media outlets in Bangladesh as saying.
Explaining why the Muhammad Yunus -led interim government was taking such a step, she said that the move was being taken as a measure to make the fish affordable for low-income people. Presently, hilsa, also known as ilish, which is Bangladesh’s national fish can only be enjoyed by the rich.
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More Shorts“The previous government would lift the ban during the Durga Puja festival. They used to call it a gift. This time I don’t think we need to give a gift because if we do it our people will not be able to eat the fish while it is allowed to be exported to India in large numbers,” Akhter was quoted as telling the BBC.
Notably, Bangladesh, which produces 70 per cent of the world’s hilsa, had imposed a ban on the export of hilsa in 2012 over a dispute on the Teesta river water-sharing agreement. However, former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has waived this ban during Durga Puja. In 2022, Bangladesh lifted the ban completely and in the following year nine cargo trucks (each with five tonnes of ilish loaded on it) arrived from Barishal via the Petrapole land port at Bongaon in West Bengal’s 24 Parganas (N), reported The Telegraph.
While Bangladesh claims the move is solely aimed at lowering the cost of hilsa in the country, others note it’s another indication of a growing anti-Indian sentiment in the neighbouring nation. A source told The Telegraph that the Yunus-led government doesn’t want to take the risk of allowing the export of hilsa at the moment. “Even if the prices don’t soften, the news of an export ban will please people here. That’s the main reason behind the ban,” the source added.
These feelings have been amplified after Hasina’s ouster in early August. She resigned from her post and fled the country, seeking refuge in India — which hasn’t gone down well with many in Bangladesh, who have urged New Delhi to return her to Dhaka .
However, another interim government official refuted this claim by telling the Kolkata-based newspaper, “Please don’t call it geopolitics…. The export ban is primarily due to a lower harvest this time. The seasonal ban on hilsa catching was lifted on August 23. Since then, the harvest is lower compared to earlier years and that’s why the pause button has been pressed on exports.”
And when the BBC asked if the interim government could make a goodwill gesture and send hilsa across the border, Akhter stated, ‘We will have goodwill gestures in all other ways. They are our friends. But we should not do anything by depriving our people. The question of goodwill is separate from this.”
A Durga Puja dampener
The ban on the export of the fish will create a scarcity of the seafood item, frustrating Bengalis. The lack of the fish, which is cooked by all households during Puja, will push the prices of the staple much higher.
At present, hilsa weighing over 1 kg from Bangladesh is sold in the market at around Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,200 per kg. A member of the Fish Importers’ Association in Kolkata told The Telegraph: “Prices are expected to rise further due to the unavailability of Bangladeshi hilsa.”
Some traders will source their hilsa from Myanmar. But this will push the price of the fish up. One retailer told India Today, “We are selling a 1-1.3-kg-size hilsa from Bangladesh for Rs 2,200 to Rs 2,400 a kilo now. The price was between Rs 1,800 and Rs 2,000 a kilo a few months ago.”
He further added that Bangladeshi hilsa would be available during Durga Puja, but prices would jump due to supply issues.
Look back at hilsa diplomacy
The Bangladesh interim government’s move to ban export of the hilsa fish marks the end of hilsa diplomacy for now. However, what exactly is hilsa diplomacy?
The fish, scientifically known as Tenualosa ilisha that is found abundantly in the Bay of Bengal and surrounding rivers, has been used by former Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina as a symbol of diplomacy in Delhi-Dhaka ties.
The genesis of this practice can be traced back to 1996 when Hasina first assumed office and gifted hilsa to the then-West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu right before the Ganges Water Sharing treaty, a landmark agreement on sharing the waters from the Farakka barrage , was signed between India and Bangladesh.
In 2016, when Mamata Banerjee won the West Bengal Assembly elections, Hasina once again sent a consignment of hilsa to her to congratulate her on the triumph. In the following year, Hasina also gifted 30 kg of hilsa to then President Pranab Mukherjee.
And even after her recent India visit in June, she engaged in hilsa diplomacy by sending 50 kg of hilsa fish to Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha.
The hilsa is a revered fish among Bengalis, holding a special place in Bengali culture. The seafood also finds mention in several noted works of Bengali literature. For instance, 19th Century novelist Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay once wrote an homage to hilsa, which translated read as: Where the hilsa fish, purified with oil, bathes in the Ganges of broth and mounts a throne, be it of clay, bronze, glass or silver, there my heart remains prostrated, overwhelmed by devotion, and refuses to leave that site of pilgrimage.”
With inputs from agencies
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