A Ban Most Unfair
The monsoons are here in full force and just when we should be feasting onour favourite fish, the hilsa, disaster has come by. Bangladesh has banned theexport of the (oh so delectable!) hilsa caught from Padma river. This variety ofhilsa is, by far, the best and fills the yawning gap in supply of local hilsa inthe Bengal market. But with this ban, the prices of not only the common andnot-so-tasty hilsa from the Hooghly shot up, there’s a severe shortage of thefish in the market. And that’s nothing short of a catastrophe; its also veryunfair to us Bengalis who wait for the entire year to feast on this fish. Theban is also patently unfair: Bangladesh says the high demand for Padma’s hilsain West Bengal had put the fish out of reach for most in that country. Hence, itbanned exports to make it affordable to the common man in Bangladesh. This isnot a fair trade practice and India should make it very clear to Bangladesh thatif it wants the trade imbalance with India to be corrected, it had better liftthe ban. The best Alfonso mangoes of India are priced out of the reach of thecommon man here since they’re so much in demand in other countries. Does thatmean India would ban exports of this variety of mangoes? It is not that thecommon man in Bangladesh cannot do without hilsa from Padma; there are, I’msure, hilsa from other rivers in that country that the common people there canhave. And if not hilsa, there are many other fish available. Dhaka should betold that if it doesn’t resume exports of the premium hilsa, then it should beprepared to face import bans of other items it's so keen to export to India.After all, Bangladesh cannot have its hilsa and eat it too!