The festive mood of Durga Puja has begun in West Bengal, and for Bengalis the festival seems incomplete without hilsa on the plate. Every year silvery Padma hilsa used to arrive in West Bengal from Bangladesh as a Durga Puja gift, but the picture is completely different this time.

Sheikh Hasina and her government fell in an unprecedented uprising of students and the public, and an interim government was formed under Nobel peace laureate Professor Dr Muhammad Yunus. Farida Akhter, the adviser to that government's Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, has made it clear that the people of Bangladesh will get hilsa first and other countries after. Following this, a ban has been imposed on exporting hilsa to India for Durga Puja.

However, India's Howrah Fish Import Association has appealed to the Bangladesh government for Padma hilsa. The association's secretary, Syed Anwar Maksud, told Jagonews that on 9 September a letter was sent to Bangladesh's foreign adviser, Md Touhid Hossain, requesting hilsa exports.

The letter says: "With great humility and respect, we wish to inform you (Md Touhid Hossain) that we have been importing hilsa from Bangladesh since 1996. Every year we imported 5,000 metric tonnes of hilsa through the Petrapole land port in West Bengal. Unfortunately, in July 2012 the then government stopped hilsa exports to India, the reasons for which they can best explain. Since then we have been appealing for the ban to be relaxed but have received no response."

As published, the letter continues: "From September 2019 to September 2013 the Bangladesh government allowed a set quantity of hilsa to be exported for a set period. For five years hilsa came from Bangladesh every year at the time of Durga Puja. In this situation we seek your kind intervention and request that hilsa exports be permitted for Durga Puja."

The letter also says: "We congratulate the interim government on successfully taking charge of Bangladesh. With our best wishes, we look forward to a 'new Bangladesh' with strong bilateral relations with India."

Besides the foreign adviser, the letter was sent to commerce ministry secretary Md Selim Uddin, commerce adviser Dr Salehuddin Ahmed, foreign secretary Jashim Uddin, and the deputy high commissioner and first secretary (commerce) in Kolkata.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.