After the interim government was formed, the adviser in charge of the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock announced that no more hilsa would be sent to India. Most people in the country were delighted, thinking hilsa would sell at lower prices at home if it were not sent to India. But the announcement had little effect on the market.

Then yesterday (21 September) it was announced that hilsa would be exported to India. Since then there has been all kinds of discussion and criticism on social media and elsewhere. Popular folk singer Kuddus Boyati has also spoken out, posting a status on his social media.

Kuddus Boyati wrote: "Whoever comes to power, there's nothing in our fate but pangas and tilapia." His status suggests he did not take kindly to exporting hilsa to India when many people at home cannot afford it.

His fans have left all sorts of comments on the post. One, Ahmed Shoshi, wrote that pangas is "the poor man's national fish". Another, Mohammad Jalal Hossain, joked: "Sing a song about the national fish pangas, Uncle Kuddus."

Kuddus Boyati recently made news with another status about the various demands of people from different walks of life made to the new government at Shahbag in the capital. In it he wrote: "Rename Shahbag as Mamabarir Abdarbag (the garden of pampered demands)."

Folk singer Kuddus Boyati has loved music since childhood. He has enlivened pala gaan (folk ballad) gatherings across the country with Mohua, Molua, Dewan Badsha, Kanchan Badsha, Hatemtai and many others. But he became widely known in 1992 with the song "Ei din din na aro din ache" by the late novelist Humayun Ahmed, which he sang as part of a campaign for compulsory primary education. He never looked back after that. During the coronavirus outbreak he also worked to raise awareness with the song "Jaina chalen, maina chalen". He has won the hearts of Bengali speakers by singing in many countries around the world.

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