Dhaka – Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina sent 2600 kilogram of mangoes of Haribhanga variety as a gift to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday.
The special variety of mangoes were sent through the land border of Benapole check point, and according to the Deputy Commissioner of the check-point’s customs house Anupam Chakma, the mangoes are a memento of the friendship between the two nations.
The First Secretary at Bangladesh’s Deputy High Commission in Kolkata Mohammed Samiul Quader, received the mangoes which were later dispatched to the India’s premier in New Delhi and the West Bengal’s CM.
Mohammed Samiul Quader, the first secretary at Bangladesh’s deputy high commission in Kolkata, received the mangoes, which will be despatched to the prime minister in New Delhi and the chief minister.
According to the local media, a Bangladeshi truck carrying 260 cartons of mangoes went through a complete process of customs and port formalities on Sunday afternoon, in the presence of senior Bangladeshi officials.
In future, Hasina plans to send mangoes to the chief ministers of northeastern Indian states like Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Tripura.
Mango Diplomacy
India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh have witnessed ‘Mango Diplomacy’ in the past, and it has played major role in the politics of these three countries.
Pakistan’s former leaders like Zia-ul-Haq and Pervez Musharraf sent mangoes as gifts to the Indian leaders of their time.
In 2015, then Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif sent a carton of mangoes to his Indian counterpart on the occasion of Muslim Eid festival, after a series of ceasefire violations took place on India-Pakistan border.
Mango and COVID-19 Vaccine
Analysts believe that Hasina’s mango diplomacy comes at a time when India has halted the export of COVID-19 vaccine to Bangladesh since March, though Bangladesh signed a commercial deal with Serum Institute of India to deliver five million Covidshield doses every month till June 2021.
However, due to the surge in COVID-19 cases in India, the country could not deliver the vaccines to its counterpart.
Around 1.5 million Bangladeshis have received the first dose of vaccine, and they badly wait for their second shot. To fill the gap, Dhaka is compelled to turn to Russia and China for the vaccines.
