Patna: Yearly from 2007 to 2022, Bhagalpur’s “mango man” Ashok Choudhary despatched 2,500 cartons of the prized and very perishable jardalu mango to Delhi and Patna as half of what’s referred to as Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s “mango diplomacy”.
Every carton, based on him, contained 20 mangoes, and went to a number of VVIPs — together with the President of India, the Vice-President, the Prime Minister and Union ministers.
This 12 months, nevertheless, this “mango diplomacy” has reportedly been halted with out clarification.
“We had been requested handy over 2,500 packs to the native agriculture officers by 2 June. It was delayed by a day as a result of the packaging that was coming from Kanpur was late. However as we had been getting the cartons prepared, the native agriculture officers informed us that there shall be no dispatch to both Patna or Delhi,” Choudhary, who grows mangoes over 1,000 acres and sells his produce throughout India, informed ThePrint. “The mangoes rotted and I misplaced round Rs 15 lakh.”
The event comes simply forward of an Opposition assembly that Nitish — whose Janata Dal (United) formally broke ties with the BJP-led Nationwide Democratic Alliance in August 2022 — will host in Patna on 23 June. Seventeen Opposition events, together with ally Congress, will attend the assembly.
ThePrint reached Bihar Agriculture Minister Kumar Sarvjeet for a remark by means of cellphone calls and textual content messages. This report shall be up to date when a response is obtained.
In the meantime, an official from the agriculture division stated that, every year, the approval for dispatching mangoes got here from the state cupboard secretariat. “To date, we haven’t obtained the approval, so we didn’t ship the mangoes,” he informed ThePrint.
On its half, the JD (U) stated it was unaware of the event. “Solely the state agriculture ministry will have the ability to touch upon this,” celebration spokesperson Neeraj Kumar informed ThePrint.
The BJP has attributed the halt to Nitish’s “bitterness” in direction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Not solely mangoes however even the shahi lychee that was despatched to dignitaries weren’t despatched this 12 months,” BJP chief and Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Modi informed ThePrint. Sushil Modi has earlier served as Nitish’s deputy for 11 years — from November 2005 to June 2013 after which from July 2017 to November 2020.
“CM Nitish Kumar should have thought that there was no have to ship the fruits to the PM and Union ministers since we are actually political rivals. However as soon as a convention has been began it ought to have been continued. It pertains to branding of Bihar’s merchandise,” he stated.
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‘Mango diplomacy’
Grown primarily in Bihar’s Bhagalpur space, jardalu acquired the coveted GI (Geographical Indication) tag in 2018. The Bihar authorities has been selling the mangoes internationally — GI-certified jardalu mangoes had been first exported to the UK in 2021.
Presently, 25,000 quintals of jardalu mangoes are exported to Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, in addition to the UK, sources within the state agriculture division informed ThePrint.
Though distinctive in style and flavour, the mangoes have one draw back — they’re extremely perishable and accessible for a really quick span of time yearly, not like its widely-exported peer, the Ratnagiri alphonso. “It hits the market on 25 Could and after 10 June, it’s not accessible,” Choudhary stated.
Of the two,500 mango cartons despatched as a part of Nitish’s “mango diplomacy” till final 12 months, 2,000 had been despatched to Delhi and the remaining to Patna.
Nitish’s ties along with his on-again-off-again companion BJP have been on a downslide since August final 12 months, when he dumped the celebration for the second time since 2013.
Since his breakup with the BJP final 12 months, Nitish is but to fulfill PM Narendra Modi, even skipping final month’s NITI Aayog governing council assembly that chief ministers and lieutenant governors representing 19 states and 6 Union territories attended.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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