Mango diplomacy: Bangladesh PM sends 2,600 kg mangoes for PM Modi, Mamata Banerjee

Mango diplomacy has at all times been a convention within the South-Asian area. (File picture: AP)

A consignment of two,600 kg mangoes for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, and different leaders has reached India as a mark of goodwill from Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, stories stated. The mangoes are of the Haribhanga selection, grown in northwest Bangladesh.

Md Samiul Quader, first secretary (political) of the Bangladesh Deputy Excessive Fee in Kolkata, obtained the consignment. Each day Manab Zamin, a Dhaka-based newspaper, reported that the cargo arrived at Bengal’s Benapole-Petrapole checkpost on Sunday. The consignments will probably be shipped to the residences of their respective recipients quickly. One consignment will even be despatched to President Ram Nath Kovind. The report stated Bangladesh was planning to ship mangoes to some states within the northeastern similar to Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Tripura.

Mango is a staple in households in each Bengal and Bangladesh, with the fruit seen not solely as a summer time delicacy however as an important ingredient in a number of dishes on each side of the border. India as a complete is dwelling to over 1,000 sorts of mangoes, just a few of that are cultivated for industrial functions. The Indian mango can also be among the many hottest export merchandise with shipments heading to the Center East, the US and the UK each summer time.

The fibre-rich fruit is common all through south Asia. And so is the custom of mango diplomacy. In 2015, then Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif reportedly despatched a field of mangoes to his Indian counterpart on the event of Id, following a flurry of ceasefire violations alongside the border. Pakistan, which is the world’s fifth-largest producer of mangoes, reportedly sends cartons to political leaders throughout the globe. Pakistan has used ‘mango diplomacy’ to safe friendships earlier than as effectively, none extra so than with China, when Chinese language chief Mao Zedong was gifted a field of mangoes to cement a friendship between the 2 international locations within the late Sixties.

India and Bangladesh, part of Pakistan until 1971, haven’t been on the perfect of phrases of late after India halted exports of COVID-19 vaccines to that nation. Mango diplomacy has at all times been a convention within the South-Asian area. Even earlier than that, the 2 international locations have been at loggerheads over sharing over the water from the Teesta river in north Bengal.

Modi is a giant fan of mangoes and had revealed in an interview to actor Akshay Kumar forward of the overall elections in 2019 that he beloved the juicy fruit as a teen and nonetheless loves them. He added that he didn’t have the posh of shopping for mangoes as a baby in Gujarat and, in consequence, resorted to plucking from the bushes. Nevertheless, he had added that he has to regulate what number of mangoes he eats nowadays due to his age. However whether or not he controls his need after receiving Hasina’s present is one other matter altogether.